For whatever reason I am drawn to Italian pipe makers and up until 2 years ago when I quit the hobby I had quite a selection of some high end briars from well known makers. I sold my collection to Smokingpipes.com and now feel like I got a little ripped off for what they paid me. But hey, at that time I thought I was done with the hobby. I just recently took up piping again and found a beautiful IL Duca Barone Morta on E-Bay that probably had been smoked maybe once. It was a DDD stamped pipe and I couldn't pass up the price. The pipe smokes superbly and I'm probably going to start buying more Italian pipes. Out of my initial collection I kept a moderately priced Luciano and my son has sent back to me 4 pipes I had when I was in my mid 20's which was 45 years ago. I know one is a Stanwell but can't make out the other makers although I know I paid good money back in the mid 70's for those pipes. I am having Briarville do the restoration on those pipes and having him fit a new stem on the Luciano that I dropped. There is just something magical about pipes and especially those from Italy.