Ernie Markle Sandblasted Bamboo Lovat Estate Briar Pipe, American Estates

Description

Ernie Markle is an American artisan pipe-maker based in Arizona. Prior to becoming a pipe-maker, Markle had a background in philosophy and Spanish, but had ultimately arrived at a career in finance. Inspired by the creations of contemporary carvers such as Alex Florov, Markle became interested in making his own pipes in the late-2000s. To this end, Markle visited pipe shows and pipe-making seminars, showing enough promise that two of the all-time American greats, Jeff “J. Alan” Gracik and Brad Pohlmann, invited Markle to study pipe-making with them and further hone his talents. Guided by Gracik, Pohlmann, and later Adam Davidson, Markle has become a highly respected artisan in his own right, with a proclivity toward Danish and Danish-American shapes and styles.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from talking to pipe-makers over the years, it’s that complex shapes are hard to make, but simple shapes are hard to make well. In other words, while blowfishes, ukuleles, and other modern creations undoubtedly require a great degree of skill to produce, a similar mastery is required to produce, for example, a good billiard, along with other, traditional shapes. This bamboo Lovat from Ernie Markle is certainly a good one. While there are parallels to be drawn between it and the old Dunhill Whangee pipes, the style leans closer to more recent Danish and American designs, such as those of Jess Chonowitsch and Markle’s tutors Gracik and Davidson. The shank is narrowed and the bowl broadened relative to mid-century approaches, allowing for a rounder, more organically-composed bowl, while a slight flare at the base of the stem repeats the expanding and contracting pattern established by the bamboo’s knuckled form. The finish is a crisp, ring grain sandblast, with a rounded rim left smooth to show off a ring of bird’s-eye patterns.

The condition is excellent. Some very minor rim darkening.

 

Details:

Length: 6.2″ / 157.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.76″ / 19.30mm

Bowl Depth: 1.48″ / 37.59mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 42g