Peter Stokkebye by Jorgen Larsen, Bent Brandy Estate Briar Pipe, Danish Estates [SOLD]

Description

The Stokkebye family are giants in the tobacco world; their pipes are similarly renowned, but for a slightly different reason. This is because Stokkebye-brand pipes have been made, at different times, by different makers – typically, though not always, by Danish masters. Peter Stokkebye pipes were largely made by one seminal figure in Danish pipe-making by the name of Jorgen Larsen. Larsen began his career working for Stanwell, before embarking to create hand-made, high-grade pipes under his own name. A briar dust allergy would unfortunately cut Larsen’s career short, but not before he made his mark upon the high-grade scene, both through his pipes and through passing on his knowledge of pipe-making to figures such as Kazuhiro Fukuda and Smio Satou of the then-germinal Tsuge Ikebana workshop.

I’ve classified this particular Larsen-made Peter Stokkebye as a brandy, but those familiar with Danish pipe design may recognize it as a somewhat different shape: the ‘potato sack.’ I’m fairly sure Sixten Ivarsson originated the shape, and I’ll admit I’m not entirely sure how it got its name (if you aren’t familiar, I recommend Googling it to see some truly wild creations!), but this one by Jorgen Larsen stands toe-to-toe even with Ivarsson’s own. The bowl is like a brandy, except it forgoes the radial symmetry of the brandy by being wider from east-to-west than it is north-to-south; the forward face of the bowl has, as a consequence, a ‘flattened’ look. On paper, it shouldn’t work, and yet it does, especially when the bowl’s shaping has been so expertly executed as to maximize the vertical straight grain patterns of the briar used. On the pipe’s underside is a pool of bird’s-eye; the stem is hand-cut ebonite. Perfect.

This Larsen, having come to us via our trade-in program by a very careful collector, is in excellent condition, with only some minor inner rim darkening and a slight un-rounding of the chamber to speak for its previous uses.

 

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.75 / 19.05mm

Bowl Depth: 1.27″ / 32.25mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 42g