Sven Lar by Michael Kabik Smooth Freehand Estate Briar Pipe, American Estates

Description

Sven Lar was the name used by a workshop headed by American freehand carver Michael Kabik. Kabik got his start as one of the earliest freehand carvers in the United States, working for CHP-X Pipes, owned by Chuck Holiday, in the early-1970s. After CHP-X was forced to close, Kabik was approached with the offer of heading a new workshop in Virginia, which ultimately took on the name Sven Lar.

As I mentioned in a previous listing, Michael Kabik’s prior training as a sculptor is pretty evident in his briar compositions. This Sven Lar from Kabik is further testament to that. It is a very American freehand, but it also genuinely does look like the kind of pipe that someone with a background in subtractive fine art would carve. It’s like someone took the idea of an Oom Paul or a calabash (i.e., a shape with a deep bend to it) and stretched it out, warping it into a highly assertive, almost abstract composition. Kabik’s inclusion of spot-carved sections on the bowl only seems to further this distinct, almost expressionistic bent. On the other hand, Kabik was also a very skilled pipe-maker, which can be seen in this Sven Lar’s attention to the straight grain patterns of its briar and its orientation of plateau burl to both the rim and the shank end. In this day and age, after the explosion of Danish pipes in the post-war decades, it’s difficult to make a “unique” freehand, yet this one from the 1970s is unique even by contemporary standards.

The condition is great. Some very slight inner rim darkening, but nothing major.

 

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 1.01 / 25.65mm

Bowl Depth: 1.8″ / 45.72mm

Weight: 2.8oz / 80g