Hans Former Nielsen Smooth Brandy w/ Horn Estate Briar Pipe, Danish Estates

Description

A pioneer and undisputed master of Danish artisan pipe-making, Hans ‘Former’ Nielsen began his career, aged 15, repairing pipes for Poul Rasmussen at Suhr’s Pibemageri. Later, Former was referred to the W.O. Larsen workshop by Rasmussen, where – after an examination by Sven Knudsen, who had designed many early Larsen models – he was recruited as a fully-fledged pipe-maker. Within his 10 years at Larsen, Former rose to the rank of workshop supervisor, having his own apprentices of the likes of Teddy Knudsen and Tonni Nielsen. In the years since, Former’s primary output has been high-grade handmade pipes – with 2019 marking his 60th anniversary in the craft.

The modern brandy is a shape with as rich a history as, for example, the classical billiard, despite being much, much younger. The traditional brandy is, of course, a long-established staple within briar pipes and the standards set for pipe-making by English and French companies, but the modern brandy, as with the modern Dublin, might well be said to be a form unto itself. This distinct form emerged in post-war Denmark, and, along with certain others, heralded a second great transformation in pipe design. In contrast to Scandinavian pipe-making in the immediate aftermath of the war, marked by relatively restrained experiments with novel, “freehand” approaches to manufacture and subtle plays on prewar design conventions, the new Scandinavian styles that followed leaned even further into freehand shaping and were far more adventurous when it came to pushing boundaries. Former’s pipe-making education took place on the very cusp of that second shift, and it took place within an institution that was one of the epicenters of the new Scandinavian style, Denmark’s W.O. Larsen workshop. It is not surprising that there is a lot in common between this brandy by the mature Former and the brandy shapes put out by W.O. Larsen in the 1960s and ’70s. Though not a large pipe, it is nonetheless broad and bulbous, with a bowl far more like its namesake than its traditional counterpart, along with a softer, smoother curvature to its quarter-bend. The consistency of the pipe’s grain patterns—particularly, in this instance, the flame grain that completely encircles the bowl—are also something of a hallmark of post-postwar Scandinavian pipe-making and  simply not possible at any reasonable scale within traditional machine manufacture.

-J.M.

 

The condition is great. Some inner rim darkening and a small scratch on the underside of the horn ferrule, but nothing major.

 

Details:

Length: 5.2″ / 132.0mm

Bowl Width: 0.74 / 18.79mm

Bowl Depth: 1.5″ / 38.10mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 46g