Ben Wade Fancy Sandblast XL Freehand Estate Briar Pipe, Danish Estates

Description

While Ben Wade was a historic British pipe brand, for a time during the 1970s, production of Ben Wade pipes was contracted out to one of Danish pipe-making’s superstars: Preben Holm. Though he would tragically pass away at the age of 42, 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.

The Fancy was a line that Preben Holm made both for Ben Wade and for pipes sold under his own name. As Ben Wade and Preben Holm were technically different brands, owned by different individuals, this practice was not as common as one might assume, though this exception makes a lot of sense given the background to the word itself. After all, one of the names originally associated with the Scandinavian freehand movement was the “fancy,” or the “Danish fancy.” This term was largely used to denote pipes that we today would simply call “freehands,” not unlike the Nording Freehand lines that dominate the genre today, though not exclusively. Additionally, the word “fancy” did not first arise from the Danish language but was a borrowing from English, particularly as a descriptor of something “modern.” Early catalogs from workshops like WO Larsen, for example, separated their most unconventional shapes from their regular (though still very “Danish”) shapes by referring to the former as “Fancy.” The notion of the Danish Fancy evolved over time, becoming more synonymous with the contemporary “freehand,” likely in part to the sheer force Preben Holm’s name carried in Danish pipe making. This particular Fancy is a rather rare example of an almost entirely sandblasted Holm freehand, with only the rim and shank end left smooth. Holm was no stranger to mixed finishes, though more often this was around 50/50 in terms of distribution. The blast itself is excellent, as is typical of Preben Holm pipes, with dense, rugged ring grain around its unfolding bowl.

The condition is good. Some residual oxidation on the stem.

Details:

Length: 6.6″ / 167.6mm

Bowl Width: 0.94 / 23.87mm

Bowl Depth: 1.66″ / 42.16mm

Weight: 1.7oz / 50g