Pipe Identification Help

[cjayhawk]

Hello All,
I am hoping that someone can help me identify an estate pipe I recently purchased at my local B&M store.

The markings on the bottom of the pipe are:

Santa Mauro

Fait main

St Claude

France
From my Google research, I have found that St. Claude, France is a well known pipe making city in France. Fair main is french for hand made.
What I can't find anything about is Santa Mauro. Is anyone familiar at all with that tag?
Thank you for all of the help!
Edit- I resized the picture for more pleasurable viewing. Also, I apologize that my phone decided it would rather focus on the tree in the background rather than the pipe.

 

[cyndi]

Santa Mauro isn't on Pipedia.org yet, so if you do find something else about the brand creating a page would be helpful to us other pipesters.
Can we get a photo of the stamp itself? Sometimes the markings give more information than the text.

 

[cjayhawk]

Thank you for the reply. If I can find anything out, I will be happy to share it.
As for the photos of the stamp: (I've included links after the picture, so you can see a high-res version of the picture if you would like.)

http://i.imgur.com/d5OPi.jpg
This is just (what I think) is a better picture of the pipe:

http://i.imgur.com/CfmwA.jpg
Thanks for any help that can be given!

 

[pstlpkr]

Looks like one of those "non-de-script" but eminently fine-quality factory-made Italian pipes.

If you are looking to affix a value....

I like the shape, very nice cross grain that really shows off the birds eyes...

I'd guess in the $50 range... new.

Looks to be a great pipe.

 

[cjayhawk]

I appreciate you looking at it. I thought it was odd that it had Santa Mauro, seemingly Italian, but then French markings. I felt it might be an Italian pipe pretending to be French, or a French pipe pretending to be Italian.
If anybody else has any ideas, I hope you will share.

 

[kcvet67]

The design looks like a Butz-Choquin, it may be a sub-brand of theirs.

 

[cjayhawk]

Thank you for the reply, KCvet. I've sent Butz-Choquin an email to see if they can be of any assistance.
Since I am so new to this, I had never even heard of this company. Their website is like a trip back in time to 1998.

 

[bigvan]

I agree with KCVET. Butz Choquin produces fine factory-made pipes in St. Claude, France. Personally I consider them on a par with Peterson but for some reason they don't have the same esteem.

 

[unclearthur]

Love those BC pipes. There are several manufacturers located in St Claude. Many produce for other sellers as well as their own name brands.

 

[cjayhawk]

Wow, I'm surprised that they have such a well known name yet I had never heard of them.
I still have way too much to learn. I'd better go smoke.