2020 Boswell’s Smooth Freehand Churchwarden Estate Briar Pipe, American Estates

Description

J.M. Boswell is one of North America’s most revered artisan pipe-makers, with Boswell pipes typically selling out within minutes of going on sale. With a pipe-making career that started in the 1970s, J.M. Boswell has become the equivalent of a household name in the pipe world, both for his pipes and for serving as the patriarch of family-owned Pennsylvania tobacconist Boswell’s.

The churchwarden is a shape whose origins arguably go back even further than the birth of briar, and through its rich history it has been re-imagined many times by many different pipe-makers. Yet with all that said, nobody does a churchwarden quite like JM Boswell. Channeling the spirit of Danish masters like Preben Holm, Boswell’s freehands manage to be something that is both gruff and assertive, yet also very beautiful. This spiral carved freehand, for example, has its bare plateau and jagged edges, but has been carefully hand shaped to the effect that it has a texture like crushed velvet. The swirl of the bowl continues a ways up the pipe’s stem, before tapering into a more familiar form as it continues toward the button. On a final note, despite being a large, long pipe, it still comes in at just under two ounces, which is quite impressive.

The condition is very good. Some rim darkening, but nothing major.

 

Details:

Length: 10.2″ / 259.0mm

Bowl Width: 0.85 / 21.59mm

Bowl Depth: 1.58″ / 40.13mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 56g