L. Wood by Les Wood, Smooth Straight Spigot Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates [SOLD]

Description

Both Les and Dolly previously worked for Dunhill, where Les developed his skills and reputation as Britain’s premier pipe silversmith, as well as one of its premier pipe carvers. Ferndown pipes are highly coveted by pipe-smokers due to their superlative craftsman(and woman!)ship, whose bowls are oil-cured and which typically feature beautiful silverwork. Sadly, Les and Dolly retired from pipe-making in 2019, making Ferndown pipes rather scarce – especially given how difficult it is to get their owners to part with them.

When Leslie and Dolly Wood of Ferndown, AKA L&JS Briars, began to export their pipes to Europe, they stumbled across a problem. ‘Ferndown,’ as Leslie told me, was, according to their importers on the European continent, a word that German speakers in particular would have trouble pronouncing. So, Ferndown, thanks to the suggestions of Leslie’s friend Holger Frickert and Dan Pipe, became L. Wood, and then – to make things even easier – Elwood. This pipe is an example of the former; it is a Ferndown in the make’s Tudor Root stain, along with a sterling silver spigot and vulcanite stem, but instead of this nomenclature, it is simply stamped as an ‘L. Wood of London’ pipe. In the coming weeks we will have an interview with Leslie coming to the main MBSD hub, where this will be elaborated on further. But, for now, rest assured that this is simply a Ferndown by another name.

As for the condition: this is a well-used L. Wood pipe. It has been professionally refurbished, but there is still some charring on the inner lip of the rim, as well as some darkening. The pipe’s vulcanite stem also has a couple of tooth marks. This will not impact the pipe’s smoking properties, but we’ve decided to offer it to our buyers at a more affordable price than the average L&JS pipe.

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.84 / 21.33mm

Bowl Depth: 1.69″ / 42.92mm

Weight: 2.04oz / 58g