Bari Wiking Magnum Smooth Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, Danish Estates

Description

Bari was a pipe company founded in Kolding, Denmark, in 1950. Along with Stanwell, Bari was one of the first companies that started the Danish movement in pipe-making, offering innovative designs and propelling its founders and carvers into celebrity status within the pipe world. Bari’s founder was Viggo Nielsen, whose sons Kai Nielsen and Jørgen Nielsen joined him in working at Bari, along with other soon-to-be famous names such as Åge Bogelund. Though the Bari company is long gone, its legacy lives on in the artisan pipe scene as it exists today.

In its infancy, the so-called “Danish style” of pipe making owed its greatest debt to England. Everyone wanted “English” pipes, so much so that Poul Nielsen took on the name Stanwell because it sounded more English than his own, very Danish, surname. Times change, of course, and soon a genuinely “Danish” style emerged that would rival even the most celebrated Anglo-French makes in sheer demand. But not all of the ensuing pipes from the great Danish makes eschewed the Anglo-French tradition—at least, not wholeheartedly. In the case of this Bari, there’s certainly a Danish aspect to it, especially when it comes to the pipe’s distinctive saddle mouthpiece, but it also strikes as essentially being in the vein of the Anglo-French “house pipe.” In other words, it is a billiard whose proportions have been vastly increased so as to remain at one’s side, without need for refill, for an entire afternoon, and perhaps even the evening that follows if smoked at a relaxed pace. Even among the Danish artisans of the 1970s and onward, such as Former, one does find a notable fondness for such designs. Based on the shaping and finishing of this one, I’m wondering if it might be one of Age Bogelund’s creations.

The condition is great. Some inner rim darkening and some handling marks.

Details:

Length: 7.7″ / 195.5mm

Bowl Width: 1.00 / 25.40mm

Bowl Depth: 2.25″ / 57.15mm

Weight: 4.3oz / 124g