S Bang Kobenhavn Ulf Noltensmeier Smooth Egg 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. 

In 1984, when Per Hansen and Ulf Noltensmeier took over the S. Bang make, there were a number of changes that took place. Unlike in previous years, S. Bang pipes were now made solely by Hansen and Noltensmeier; the place of manufacture stamp in the S. Bang nomenclature was switched from its Anglicized form, “Copenhagen,” to the original Danish, “København”; and markings indicating which of the S. Bang craftsmen made a particular pipe became slightly more common. I say “slightly” because pre-1984 S. Bangs had occasionally featured indicators of their maker, and because Hansen and Noltensmeier only included such information on their own work only for specific groups of pipes. Pipes made for the European market, for example, feature grade stamps and, on the high grade pipes, the initials of whoever made it (PH for Per Hansen and UN for Ulf Noltensmeier). Pipes destined for the American market, on the other hand, do not feature grade stamps, as S. Bang only sent high grades to America. These pipes instead feature a serial number and—at least more commonly—the maker’s initials. We can therefore decipher the stamping on this one as denoting that it is a post-1984 (“København”); that it was made in 1997 (“97”), in which it was the 68th pipe (68); and that it was made by Ulf Noltensmeier. We can also deduce that it is a high grade S. Bang pipe, though this is quite evident from the pipe itself. It is a large, very beautiful, straight grain Danish-style egg, though it does have a very curious ovaline shaping on its horizontal axis that is almost reminiscent of an opera shape (though the chamber is more conventionally conical).

J.M.

The condition is excellent. Pre-smoked, but gently.

 

Details:

Length: 6.4″ / 162.5mm

Bowl Width: 0.86 / 21.84mm

Bowl Depth: 2.09″ / 53.08mm

Weight: 2.9oz / 84g