WO Larsen Select Smooth Bulldog w/ Cumberland 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 typically collaborative efforts, made using a more conventional workshop model (as with the remainder of the WO Larsen lines). For example, one pipe-maker would be turning bowls that day, another would be cutting stems, another applying finishes, and so on. This Select-grade bulldog looks to be from the 1980s, based on the nomenclature and the addition of a cumberland stem, an option that was not present in the workshop’s earlier years. The shaping is distinctly Danish in its rendition of the classical bulldog shape, with the slightly squat, broad-bowled figure that featured as a signature motif for many a “Danish design” (in fact, this one is very reminiscent of the work of Peter Hedegaard, who may well have had a hand in its creation). The grain is excellent, too, more than earning its Select title. In fact, I was a little surprised it wasn’t a Straight Grain when it first landed on my desk. Just another one of those Danish pipe making mysteries, I suppose.

The condition is very good. Minor inner rim darkening and stem slightly over-buffed.

 

Details:

Length: 5.7″ / 144.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.89 / 22.60mm

Bowl Depth: 1.47″ / 37.33mm

Weight: 2.0oz / 58g