Ph Vigen 1990 Smooth Apple Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

Jes Phillip Vigen Gertsen, known professionally as Ph. Vigen, is a relatively mysterious figure within Danish pipe-making. His work is distinct and recognizable, and has garnered significant attention and acclaim from collectors, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him photographed. It is known that he worked at WO Larsen under foreman Hans “Former” Nielsen, that he made pipes for S. Bang and Pibe Dan (later Pipe Dan), and that he made high-grades for Bjarne Nielsen’s Bjarne make (and subsequently retired from pipe-making after Bjarne’s death). Yet little else has been documented. Still, Vigen’s pipes are, quite understandably, prized, especially since Vigen stopped making pipes over a decade ago, in 2008.

An unsmoked Ph. Vigen—especially one made under his own name—is a very rare thing. Smoked Vigens are already rare enough as it is, so to behold one that has never yet taken a flame is an experience that few are likely to have, with that likelihood diminishing with every passing year. Yet here we are, with an unsmoked Vigen on my desk, one embodying so many of his signature design preferences. It is a squat, slightly short, and more than slightly plump, apple, wearing a contrast stain that makes the bowl almost incandescent—never was the metaphor of “flame grain” more apposite. This is paired with a synthetic amber stem (Vigen was one of the few post-war Danes who regularly broke with ebonite orthodoxy for mouthpieces) which itself bears an accent cut from cumberland. Based on the stamping, this pipe will have been made in 1990 for Pipe Dan (otherwise known as Pibe-Dan) and, given that Pipe Dan closed in 1991, it will have been one of the shop’s last offerings. Talk about an end of an era…

As stated, this pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.

 

Details:

Length: 5.4″ / 137.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.81 / 20.57mm

Bowl Depth: 1.33″ / 33.78mm

Weight: 2.2oz / 64g