If you know Becker pipes, well, chances seem slim you wouldn't also know the name Musico. It was Giorgio Musico who, as an enthusiastic supporter of their work and as the manager of the famed Carmignani shop in Rome, bought up every pipe Fritz and Paolo Becker could bring him from the time he first discovered their work in 1979. Later would come both the Becker & Musico pipe shop in Rome and the Becker & Musico pipe, the latter being the result of a collaboration between Giorgio's son — Massimo Musico — and Paolo Becker, and encouraged by Giorgio Musico's love of classic shapes. These were made in the back workshop of the Becker & Musico shop itself, which Massimo and Paolo also ran together.

After Paolo turned his focus to the creation and development of Becker pipes full-time in 2002, however, Massimo continued to both run the Becker & Musico shop and create Becker & Musico briars. Without Paolo though, production was much more limited; and eventually a solution came with Foundation, the name stamped on the Musico pipes you'll find here. This again was created as a collaboration, but a broader one: Massimo, Giorgio, and a team of hand-picked Italian artisans, including Gian Maria Gamboni, Flavio Benucci, and Fabio Marchese. And so was the beginning of Foundation by Musico.