Ed Burak Connoisseur XL “LC” Smooth Bent Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, American Estates

Description

Known as the “dean of American pipe designers” Ed Burak was not a pipe-maker per se. Rather, Burak was someone who worked with the master carvers of his time to bring his distinct ideas of what a pipe could be to life. As the owner of the Connoisseur Pipe Shop, Burak designed freehand pipes so singularly representative of pipe-making as an artistic endeavor, that many of the resulting works ended up in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

While many of Ed Burak’s designs were highly adventurous and innovative, this one seems to have a very specific precedent to it: the early Dunhill LC. Though many shapes similar to Dunhill’s LC bent billiard it existed at the time of its creation, its tall, slightly egg-like bowl and swan neck curvature would soon become synonymous with the English make, and the sheer size of this one has me thinking it’s Dunhill’s version that helped this one’s design come along. It’s a beautiful rendition, and a perfect fit for Burak, given his distinct taste for towering stummels and drastic curvatures that were, quite miraculously, profoundly graceful. For a pipe of its stature, this Connoisseur also features very beautiful grain, with its bowl, under a light, natural stain, alive with bright bird’s-eye.

The condition is very good. Some darkening and general wear to the rim, and slight handling marks.

 

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.84 / 21.33mm

Bowl Depth: 2.03″ / 51.56mm

Weight: 2.2oz / 64g