Jorgen Larsen Grade J Smooth Cobra Estate Briar Pipe, Danish Estates

Description

Jørgen Larsen was was one of the all-time greats of Danish pipe-making for a number of reasons. He began his career working for Stanwell, before departing to create his own brand of high-grade, artisan pipes. Larsen’s skills and reputation led to him being contracted to also make pipes for Peter Stokkebye, which, decades later, continue to be some of the most coveted Danish handmades on the estates market. In the 1970s, Larsen was visited by Kazuhiro Fukuda and Smio Satou of the then-germinal Tsuge Ikebana workshop, who had traveled to Denmark to absorb the skills of the country’s masters of the craft. These exploits sealed Larsen’s position as a seminal figure in modern pipe-making, which made his early retirement from the craft—ironically, due to developing a briar dust allergy—all the more tragic.

The cobra is a shape that has taken many forms—many more, in fact, than there are species of cobra in the animal kingdom—which makes sense given that it is most at home in the workshops of artisan carvers, who must carefully carve its figure by hand. Idiosyncrasies in technique, as well as personal whim, therefore yield the many pipes that are, often quite loosely, grouped under that same name. The one thing that draws “cobra” pipes together is, however, the wide, curved plane that runs, uninterrupted, from what would traditionally be its “underside” to the “front” of the bowl—as, for the cobra, these are one and the same. This is where the shape gets its characteristic “strike position,” both in the arching figure it traces and in the “hooding” mechanism that it evokes. But the cobra isn’t just a matter of representing natural phenomena. It is not what we would typically call a “figural” design, after all. Instead, it is more often a way of working with the inherent properties of briar and for displaying one’s proficiency in doing so. Here, two varieties of briar patterns are prioritized to an extent that is simply not found in other shapes: cross grain and bird’s-eye. On a good cobra, such as this one, these correspond to the plane and the sides that flank it, each rising with intensity as they progress from shank end to rim in a manner not unlike the scale patterns of the shape’s namesake. For such an odd design, it’s quite miraculous how perfectly it all comes together.

-J.M.

The condition is very good. Some rim darkening and minor handling marks.

 

Details:

Length: 5.8″ / 147.3mm

Bowl Width: 0.82 / 20.82mm

Bowl Depth: 1.76″ / 44.70mm

Weight: 1.8oz / 52g