Ben Wade Danish Pride Golden Tan Partially Sandblasted 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 Ben Wade, from our trade-in program, shows off one of the hallmarks of Preben Holm’s approach to freehands: mixed finishes. When “chasing the grain,” i.e., following the natural patterns of the briar during shaping, as Holm did, one will often find that there are parts of the stummel that would look best if left smooth polished, and other parts that would look best sandblasted. As seen here, vertical grain patterns, such as straight grain and flame grain, can be expressed beautifully through freehand shaping, and so they are on full display with a smooth finish; ring grain patterns, on the other hand, provide a decidedly craggy appearance when blasted. Freehand shaping is a game of give and take, as the song goes. Sometimes the briar knows best.

On a side note, this Ben Wade has some interesting stamping. It is from the Danish Pride series, which was one for “freehand” pipes as the term is most commonly understood, but it is also from the Golden Tan subseries which, as can be seen here, was one for pipes with an almost naked, natural stain, presumably because the grain was well-suited for a light touch when it came to finishing.

The condition is great. There’s some minor, inner rim darkening, but I don’t note anything else. The pipe also comes with its original box.

 

Details:

Length: 7.2″ / 182.8mm

Bowl Width: 1.00 / 25.40mm

Bowl Depth: 1.93″ / 49.02mm

Weight: 2.8oz / 82g