Manduela Smooth Bulldog w/ Bone & Blue Ebonite Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

While not “schools” per se, there are, nonetheless, locales within Denmark that are strongly associated with distinct styles and lineages. Nowhere is this perhaps more apparent than the municipality of Svendborg, on the Danish isle of Funen. It is Svendborg where, after meeting whilst both working under Erik Nording, Jens Tao Nielsen and Poul Ilsted, decided to found a pipe company of their own, under the Svendborg Piber name. Even after Svendborg was  disbanded, something of a “Svendborgian spirit” in pipe making prevailed, both through the solo works of Tao and Ilsted, and through its native artisans, whether they had once worked for Svendborg (such as Kaj C. Rasmussen) or not (such as Flemming Jakobsen). Since Ilsted’s passing in 2017, two Svendborgians stand above all others—along with most others in Denmark as a whole—in terms of the admiration and value accorded to their pipes. One is, of course, Tao, who has been making pipes since the 1960s. The other, oddly enough, is someone who was only born in the 1960s, let alone making pipes. That person is a woman named Manduela Riger-Kusk.

There are many reasons why Manduela’s pipes are some of the most sought after in the world. For one, she was Poul Ilsted’s protégé, and her pipes often embody a similar style to the signature designs of her late mentor. But Manduela is not simply revered because of who she studied under or who her style aligns with. Her pipes are nothing less than meticulous in their crafting, which in part explains her relatively low yearly output (that Manduela is also a slow-smoking champion is no coincidence here). Though she, like Ilsted, is known for her long-shank bulldogs, like this one, she nonetheless makes them in her own way, using proportions, accents, and color schemes that ensure that her pipes are not easily confused with those of her former teacher.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. It comes with its original sleeve.

 

Details:

Length: 6.3″ / 160.0mm

Bowl Width: 0.75 / 19.05mm

Bowl Depth: 1.51″ / 38.35mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 54g