Jess Chonowitsch

Jess Chonowitsch (1947-2025) was an undisputed giant in the world of pipes. As a paragon of high-grade, Danish-style pipe making, he spent nearly six decades crafting some of the most acclaimed and sought-after artisan briars on the planet, and his influence on the generations of pipe makers that came after him has been nothing short of profound.

Jess got his start in the mid-1960s and, like many a legendary Danish artisan, his first experience working with pipes was alongside his father, Emil Chonowitsch. Emil himself belonged to an early, pioneering cohort of Scandinavian pipe makers based at the Suhr’s Pibemageri workshop in Copenhagen. Suhr’s served as one of the cradles of the nascent Scandinavian artisan scene, with figures such as Poul Rasmussen, Sixten Ivarsson, Sven Knudsen, Svend Axel Celius, Peter Brakner, and a young Hans “Former” Nielsen under its employ at one time or another. Jess joined his father at the workshop in his late teens, and continued to make pipes under Poul Rasmussen’s direction until the latter’s sudden passing in 1967. After Suhr’s subsequently closed, Jess’s next day-job was at another seminal institution in Scandinavian pipe making, W.O. Larsen. As if working alongside yet another cohort of masters and soon-to-be masters of the art wasn’t enough, he spent his evenings as an apprentice to Sixten Ivarsson. At W.O. Larsen, Jess would later be tasked with crafting the workshop’s highest-grade pipes, represented by the Straight Grain, Birds-Eyes, and Pearl series; at Ivarsson’s, he was one of only two apprentices trusted to work on pipes that would be stamped using Sixten’s “An Ivarsson Product” nomenclature—the other being Sixten’s son, Lars Ivarsson.

Jess finally settled into his own workshop around 1970, and though he continued to craft high-grade pipes on commission for W.O. Larsen, it was at this time that his Jess Chonowitsch-brand pipes properly took off. American and Japanese retailers imported Jess’s pipes alongside those of Sixten and Lars Ivarsson and Jorn Micke, and Jess’s growing status as a master of the craft led to Stanwell commissioning him to design pipe shapes for them. He traveled the world displaying his pipes at shows, and artisans would, in turn, travel to visit and learn from him at his workshop back home in Denmark. Among those who learned directly from Jess, one finds fellow Danes, such as Jorn Larsen, as well as American greats such as Tony Rodriguez, J. Alan, and Jody Davis. On the other hand, the list of pipe makers who learned indirectly from Jess by way of stylistic and technical influence is endless.