WO Larsen Select Smooth Brandy Estate Briar Pipe, Danish Estates

Description

WO Larsen was a tobacconist in Copenhagen Denmark. In the 1960s, when Danish-style pipes were becoming highly sought after, thanks to revolutionary pipe-makers such as Sixten Ivarsson, a workshop was set up on the Larsen premises to produce enough high-grade Danish pipes to meet demand. This workshop was staffed by the emerging masters of Danish pipe-making, such as Sven and Teddy Knudsen, Hans ‘Former’ Nielsen, Jess Chonowitsch, Poul Ilsted, and Benni Jorgensen.

The “Select” was a premium line of pipes from the WO Larsen workshop. While all WO Larsen pipes were high grade, the Select was a cut above the workshop’s “standard” output, and were often worked on by its most talented carvers, such as Former, Chonowitsch, and Tonni Nielsen. What separated the Select from WO Larsen’s other premium line, the Straight Grain, was that, while the Straight Grain pipes were made by just one carver from start to finish, the Select grades were collaborative efforts, made using a typical workshop model. For example, one pipe-maker would be turning bowls that day, another would be cutting stems, another applying finishes, and so on. I’d wager that this beautiful, Select grade brandy would have been a Straight Grain grade if it had been the work of just one master pipe-maker. Instead, it was made by several, which I personally don’t mind one bit.

The condition is good. There’s a couple of superficial nicks and scrapes at the top of the front of the bowl and some minor inner rim darkening, but nothing major at all.

 

Details:

Length: 5.4″ / 137.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.79 / 20.06mm

Bowl Depth: 1.5″ / 38.10mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 56g