L’Anatra Dalle Uova D’Oro

It was in Pesaro, a small Italian seaside town not far from Venice, that Massimo Palazzi decided in 1997 to set up his own company, which he called “L’Anatra dalle uova d’oro” (the duck that laid the golden eggs). The name refers to the fable whose moral fascinated him as a child: never become as greedy as the farmer who killed his duck in order to take all the golden eggs she was laying.

He was joined a few years later by a former colleague, the pipe maker Andrea Pascucci, who came only to help him at the start and ended up becoming his partner thanks to the remarkable work he produced, much admired by Massimo Palazzi.

The skill and imagination of each of them have brought a great deal to the company, which has never stopped growing and now produces around 2000 pipes a year.

Known throughout the world for the duck’s head emblem set on every pipe and for the character of its work, L’Anatra makes only entirely handmade pipes. The two makers are very demanding when it comes to choosing the briar they use. Both prefer Calabrian briar, finer and lighter than briar from other regions. They buy only briar that has already been dried, and store it for a further year.
The acrylic stem is in fact the only part not made by hand by Massimo Palazzi or Andrea Pascucci. They order the stems from a specialist firm and then work them so that each one fits the shank and the bowl of their pipe exactly.

The two makers then assess their pipes and may give them one of seven grades, usually stamped on the shank of the pipe. Here is a short summary of those grades:

– One egg
– Two eggs
– Three eggs
– One egg Fiammatta
– Two eggs Fiammatta
– Three eggs Fiammatta
– Fiaba

It goes without saying that the higher the grade, the greater the beauty, the quality and the value.

L’Anatra also has two special series to its name. The “Nirvana”, which offers pipes with particularly unusual shapes, and the “Géante”, which, as its name suggests, offers a range of particularly large pipes.

Sold mainly in the United States and Germany, the Italian L’Anatra pipes have, thanks to their quality, their beauty and their originality, crossed borders and oceans as the finest paintings and works of art do!!!