HS Studio Sandblasted Long Shank Apple Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

If you’ve been keeping up with the world of Chinese pipe making, their artisan scene has been really taking off over the last decade. Like the great Danish institutions of old, many of these pipes are produced in artisan workshops such as Zhiputang, Qi Studio, and GH Zhang. Hong Kong’s HS Studio follows a similar model, with a team of expert in-house carvers crafting high-quality briars in a variety of styles.

Long shank apples such as this one have been a staple of artisan pipes for years, and if one had to locate their origin, it would likely be in Scandinavia’s first family of handmade pipes, the Ivarsson. Sixten Ivarsson’s designs were typically slender and more functionalist in orientation, in part because he came to prominence amidst a briar shortage. It was his son, Lars Ivarsson, that “beefed up” his father’s signature acorn and egg shapes, while also creating plenty of wholly novel ones of his own. Nanna Ivarsson would add her own modifications when she too became a pipe maker, as would the many artisans for whom Sixten, Lars, and Nanna were principal influences. There’s certainly something of the latter two in this apple shape from HS Studio, and I suspect that the individual carver was a great fan of Lars in particular. While reserved in finish, the pipe is nonetheless beautifully shaped, and crisply sandblasted in a way that thoroughly exposes the briar’s ring grain patterns.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.

 

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.78 / 19.81mm

Bowl Depth: 1.57″ / 39.87mm

Weight: 2.1oz / 62g