S. Bang Pre-1984 7 Smooth Brandy Sitter Estate Briar Pipe, Danish Estates

Description

Originally founded in 1968 by Svend Bang, a former store manager at Denmark’s legendary W.Ø. Larsen, S. Bang would go on to become a legend in its own right, one that would rival even Larsen in fame and acclaim. While Svend himself was not a pipe-maker, he was able to enlist some of the most talented pipe-makers in Denmark to create the S. Bang pipes. In the early days, this included figures such as Ph. Vigen, but it is two makers in particular who would become synonymous with the S. Bang name: Per Hansen and Ulf Noltensmeier. Per and Ulf joined the S. Bang workshop in the early 1970s, and in 1984, when Svend Bang himself retired, Per and Ulf formally took over S. Bang. Per and Ulf’s creations were as admired and coveted as their Danish contemporaries, such as Jess Chonowitsch, Tom Eltang, and Hans ‘Former’ Nielsen. Per and Ulf retired and dissolved S. Bang in 2019, much to the disappointment of pipe smokers and collectors across the world. 

It really is amazing what a simple change in the order of how we do things can make possible. No great advances in the means of production, just an inversion of the sequence in which those means are employed—along with a little human ingenuity, of course. If you turn a bowl on a lathe—drill it, rough out the shape, et cetera—then sit down at a sander to smooth out the edges, you’ll be able to make a nice, traditional billiard, Dublin, cutty, or even a bulldog, with some practice. But if you start out on the sander and use that to work out the shape before mounting it for drilling, then the only thing holding back what the pipe can be are a few technical constraints (largely regarding the positioning and relationship of the draft hole and the chamber) and your own imagination. That’s how you get a pipe like this one. It’s a kind of brandy shape, though one that is distinctly rotund and a little squat, one that gives the illusion of a slight “lean” to its posture. Like many designs in the Danish tradition, it has a somewhat avian quality, though perhaps is less of a swan and more of a nice, plump goose. The other advantage of “shape first, drill second” manufacture is having far more control over the relationship between the design and the briar’s grain, with this S. Bang having no shortage of flame grain and bird’s-eye in all the right places.

-J.M.

The condition is very good. Some rim darkening and a couple of very light scratches on the bowl.

 

Details:

Length: 5″ / 127.0mm

Bowl Width: 0.77″ / 19.55mm

Bowl Depth: 1.44″ / 36.57mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 54g