Preben Holm Rungsted Seafarer Smooth Freehand Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

Though he would tragically pass away at the age of 42, Preben Holm was one of the pioneering figures in the ‘Danish design’ movement in 20th century pipe-making – a movement that still dominates the high-grade pipe scene. By hand-shaping his pipes on a belt sander, Holm was able to make the most of the patterns of grain hidden within briar, creating spectacular works of pipe art that looked just as good as they smoked. Owing to Holm’s untimely passing, his pipes are even more highly sought after than they were during his lifetime.

As mentioned in our recent newsletters, this is one of a significant number of unsmoked Preben Holm pipes that came through our trade-in program recently. A few of those have already been snapped up by our most devoted newsletter readers (don’t forget to sign up if you haven’t already), though there are more to come.

Presumably invoking the coastal town of Rungsted Kyst, to the north of Copenhagen, Preben Holm’s Rungsted make seems to have been an outlet for the Danish giant to experiment with distinct styles, as also seen in his Wengholt pipes. Rungsteds follow Holm’s basic design philosophy of “chasing the grain” via the hand-shaping of plateaux briar blocks, but they’re also typically rather rugged in form, while also having stems that are cut in forms not unlike a ship’s mast. In other words, there’s something of a maritime theme unique to Rungsted pipes, further evinced by the names carried by their lines (Seafarer, Mariner, etc.,) and the Viking longboat stamp used for their stems.

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

 

Details:

Length: 6.8″ / 172.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.93 / 23.62mm

Bowl Depth: 1.59″ / 40.38mm

Weight: 2.0oz / 58g