Ben Wade Golden Walnut Smooth Freehand Estate Briar Pipe, Danish Estates

Description

While Ben Wade was a historic British pipe brand, for a time during the 1970s, production of Ben Wade pipes was contracted out to one of Danish pipe-making’s superstars: Preben Holm. Though he would tragically pass away at the age of 42, Holm was one of the pioneering figures in the ‘Danish design’ movement in 20th century pipe-making, a movement that still dominates the high-grade pipe scene. By hand-shaping his pipes on a belt sander, Holm was able to make the most of the patterns of grain hidden within briar, creating spectacular works of pipe art that looked just as good as they smoked. Owing to Holm’s untimely passing, his pipes are even more highly sought after than they were during his lifetime.

This paticular Ben Wade, from Preben Holm’s workshop, is just about everything you could want in a quintessentially Danish freehand. Its shaping is both rugged and assertive, but at the same time that shaping has been used to bring out beautiful straight grain and flame grain patterns latent in the briar used. It is large – even by Holm’s standards – but it has a good enough hand-feel to ensure easy sipping for the hours of smoking its generous chamber promises. It of course features a wide, bare plateau rim, as well as plateau at its shank end, and it features a fanciful and distinctive hand-cut stem.

The condition is great. It does not appear to have been smoked much. There are some minor scratches around the bowl. It is possible the stem is a replacement, though it’s hard to tell with Holm’s, as they were all different. I’ve knocked the price down a bit just in case.

 

Details:

Length: 8″ / 203.2mm

Bowl Width: 1.02 / 25.90mm

Bowl Depth: 1.95″ / 49.53mm

Weight: 3.8oz / 110g