by Kenneth Lieblich

I must confess – I don’t remember how this pipe came into my possession, but I took it in hand recently and figured that one of you fine folks might like it. This is a rugged, craggy, wonderful Gigi Studio X4 4121 bent bulldog. It has a deeply rusticated stummel with a diamond shank. The saddle stem is elegantly bent and made of vulcanite. The good news for you (and for me) is that this pipe is unsmoked! This pipe is light, handsome, satisfying, and nicely made. Let’s take a closer look.

The stampings are found on the underside of the shank and they are clear and perfectly readable. They read Gigi [over] Collection [over] Italia. Next to that, we see Regd Numbers [over] 386155-386166 [over] Studio X 4 [over] 4121. Then, at a right angle to that, we read Made in Italy. Finally, there is the Gigi logo on the stem.

I had heard of Gigi before, but didn’t know much about the company. So, I went to the usual suspects to see what I could find. Pipedia had a brief write-up which I reproduce here in its entirety:

Luigi “Gigi” Crugnola was born in 1934, the same year Giorgio Ròvera founded a company in his own name in Varese, Italy along with partners Angelo and Adele Bianchi, who also happened to be Luigi Crugnola’s Uncle and Mother, respectively. The company produced pipes for 30 years, largely exported to America and elsewhere in the world. Crugnola took over the company in 1964 with the death of Angelo Bianchi, changing the name soon after to his own nickname Gigi, and continues to run the company today. The vast majority of Gigi pipes continue to be made for export.

Next, I looked at Pipephil and, although they had an entry for Gigi, it wasn’t particularly informative. However, I did find a couple of blogs that gave a more thorough background on Mr Crugnola and his pipeworks. One blog is in German; the other in Italian. They are quite similar. Below, I have provided a Google translation. Entitled, ‘Luigi Crugnola – the man who is Gigi’, the two posts were written by Ralf Dings on 11 July 2020 and Ezio Rocchi Balbi in October 2007. The originals can be found here and here.

When little Luigi Crugnola was born in Gavirate in 1934, he could not have known that in the same year and very close to him something happened that would shape Luigi’s entire life.

On November 21, 1934, the founding charter for the company Giorgio Ròvera was signed. The company’s goal was the production of briar pipes. It should be noted that the name Ròvera was very common in pipe making around Gavirate at that time. All Ròveras belonged to the same family line; some founded pipe companies, a few of which still exist today. However, this particular case was different. Although the company bore this name for forty years, Giorgio Ròvera never appeared there. The management consisted of young Luigi’s uncle, Angelo Bianchi, and Luigi’s mother, Adele Bianchi, both of whom were Ròvera’s partners.

The company manufactured pipes on commission for other producers, ranging from a dozen to several hundred per order. Ròvera crafted the pipes, stamped them with the client’s name, and delivered the finished products. They quickly gained a reputation and achieved success. The pipes were considered high-quality, the order books were full, and twelve pipemakers found a good living at Ròvera. Angelo Bianchi, however, seems to have been an odd man. He was also heavily involved in politics, which led to his becoming mayor of Gavirate. While his employees described him as a fair and good boss, and his business partners praised his reliability and honesty, he was quite unpopular as mayor. Due to the Second World War and the political developments in Italy, Angelo Bianchi had to flee to Switzerland at the end of the war. The reasons were, and probably still are, known only to a select few, but things calmed down, Bianchi returned, and he and his sister-in-law once again steered the company to success.

By then, Luigi Crugnola, whom everyone called Gigi, had finished school and joined the company as a young teenager. You could say he began his studies. Ròvera employed top-notch pipe makers, as well as experts in metalwork and ebonite processing; business was booming, and Luigi was able to learn all the manufacturing processes and tricks of the trade over several years at his own pace. In addition, he learned the business acumen he needed to successfully run a company from his uncle and mother.

One could truly speak of success. At the beginning of the 1960s, the factory in Oltrona al Lago employed 160 people who produced up to 7,000 pipes per day (!). These were primarily in the classic English shapes, which were still the most sought-after on the market at the time.

But Angelo Bianchi wanted more. He was the first to attempt to organize the pipe manufacturers around Gavirate and Barasso. He envisioned a “pipe union” to better compete on the global market and overcome challenges together. When the idea finally seemed to be taking shape, all the manufacturers met at the Hotel Jolly in Ascoli Piceno to sign the historic document establishing the union. However, anyone familiar with the independent nature of Italian pipe makers and companies, and aware of the numerous disagreements, both large and small, knows that this document was nothing more than scrap paper just a few weeks later.

Angelo Bianchi’s energy was incredible and sometimes even alarming to those around him. In 1961, Bianchi was vacationing on the French Riviera and witnessed the construction of the motorway there. Astonished and appalled, he discovered that thousands of tree heath bushes were being completely uprooted and carelessly discarded. The very next day, Gigi received a call from his uncle in Italy. He was instructed to find saws in Italy and to prepare for the arrival of a whole convoy of trucks. Angelo Bianchi had promptly bought the wood and started his own sawmill – a step that no one in the Varese area had dared to take until then.

A hall was built, saws were purchased from Tuscany and Liguria, and a six-cubic-meter copper boiler was installed. Seven saws were running, but the first year was a disaster. The learning curve was steep, and serious errors rendered virtually the entire first year’s production unusable. Meanwhile, trucks continued to arrive week after week from France with supplies. Giving up was not an option, so Angelo and his nephew Gigi immersed themselves in the process to produce truly good blanks the following year. Strangely, but understandable given their internal squabbles, no Italian competitor bought from them. However, they managed to successfully export the wood that wasn’t needed for their own production.

In 1963, Gigi convinced his uncle that maintaining customer relationships solely through mail and telephone was no longer sufficient to preserve order volume in increasingly challenging times. With his uncle’s approval, Gigi and his wife filled up the company’s Alfa Romeo and embarked on an extensive journey across Europe, all the way to Norway, to meet and serve their customers in person. The ambitious trip proved successful, allowing them to further expand and solidify their customer base. In 1964, Angelo Bianchi passed away, leaving Gigi to continue the business with his mother’s support. Business became more difficult year after year, and when Adele Bianchi retired in 1978, Gigi took over sole control, renamed the company GIGI PIPES, and planned for a modern future.

He quickly realized that good business could no longer be achieved through high volume. His company, however, possessed the know-how and skilled personnel to produce top-quality products in smaller quantities, and potential customers quickly recognized this. In addition to its own Gigi Pipes lines, which covered every need from good mid-range to high-end series, Gigi was now also manufacturing for such highly regarded companies as Davidoff and Dunhill. By this time, the company employed only twenty people, but they were able to make a living, as it remained as healthy as possible under the increasingly difficult market conditions.

Last year [2020], news arrived from Gavirate that Luigi Crugnola, now 85 years old, was planning to close his company. Initially, there was speculation that his son Andrea might take over the business. However, in these increasingly unpredictable times, he likely decided against it. Thus, a great era comes to an end. The Ròvera/Gigi Pipes company, not always universally loved, has outlived almost all of its competitors in the Gavirate area…and even if he isn’t the first name that comes to mind when discussing Italian pipe making, Luigi “Gigi” Crugnola can rightfully be counted among the greats, among the key figures in Italian pipe history.

So, let’s look at the pipe. As mentioned, it’s never been smoked, so this was an easy restoration. The stummel was clean and fresh and I merely polished the smooth patch where the markings were. I rubbed some LBE Before & After Restoration Balm into the briar and let it sit for 30 minutes or so. The balm moisturizes the wood and gives a beautiful depth to the briar. I then buffed the stummel with a microfibre cloth.

The stem was also new, but it had oxidized a bit over the years. I soaked it overnight in some Briarville Stem Oxidation Remover. This solution works to draw oxidation in the stem to the surface of the vulcanite. This is a major aid and an important step in ensuring a clean stem. The following day, I drew out the stem from its bath and scrubbed the lingering fluid with a toothbrush. Annoyingly, a little bit of the logo was lost in the soaking, but it is what it is.

Following that, I used the last few micromesh sanding pads to provide a gentle polishing of the finished surface. I also applied pipe-stem oil while using the micromesh pads. There was a wonderful, deep black shine to the stem when I was done.

For the final step, I took the stem to my bench polisher and carefully buffed it with a blue diamond compound. It sure looked great after that!

All done! This Gigi Studio X4 4121 bent bulldog looks fantastic again and is ready to be enjoyed by its next owner. I am pleased to announce that this pipe is for sale! If you are interested in acquiring it for your collection, please have a look in the ‘Italian’ section of the store here on Steve’s website. You can also email me directly at kenneth@knightsofthepipe.com. The approximate dimensions of the pipe are as follows: length 5⅞ in. (149 mm); height 1½ in. (38 mm); bowl diameter 1¾ in. (45 mm); chamber diameter ¾ in. (20 mm). The weight of the pipe is 1⅜ oz. (41 g). I hope you enjoyed reading the story of this pipe’s restoration as much as I enjoyed restoring it. If you are interested in more of my work, please follow me here on Steve’s website or send me an email. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, I welcome and encourage your comments.