Bjorn Bengtsson 1988 Sandblasted Horn Estate Briar Pipe, Swedish Estates

Description

In 2025, the world of pipes lost one of its original greats, a pioneer in what has come to be known as the “Danish” style of post-war pipe making. But, as has so often been the case when it comes to the “Danish” style, this individual was not a Dane, but a Swede: Björn Bengtsson, otherwise known as Björn of Sweden.

Bjorn was born in Malmö, but as a teenager he would end up traveling to Copenhagen, where he met the then-foreman of a little workshop called Suhr’s Pibemageri, Poul Rasmussen. Bengtsson learned the basics of pipe making, (though initially with an emphasis on repair), with Rasmussen, at a time when Suhr’s was filled with some of the soon-to-be greats of Danish pipes, including Emil Chonowitsch, Jess Chonowitsch. After Rasmussen’s sudden passing, Bengtsson was taken under the wing of Anne Julie, making pipes alongside another young pipe maker named Teddy Knudsen. After a cumulative decade spent in Denmark working for and alongside its established and emerging masters, Bengtsson returned to Sweden, where he set up shop as an independent, artisan pipe maker.

Bengtsson’s pipes were sold by a number of prestigious establishments, including Pibe-Dan (later known as Pipe Dan), and was, for a good while, perhaps the second most renowned pipe maker in Sweden, next to Bo Nordh (fellow Swede Sixten Ivarsson had, by this point, settled in Denmark). His pipes made in the 1980s were especially well regarded, though toward the end of the 20th century the number of pipes he made declined significantly due to ill health.

Here we find a quite fascinating pipe from Bengtsson, made at the tail end of that decade. While it shows affinities with the slightly boxy, paneled Oliphant designs of Ivarsson and Nordh, Bengtsson’s horn variant is somewhat more conventional as far as the practical side of pipe making is concerned. While it retains the hallmark, singular figure of the Scandinavian horn, by way of an unbroken line that traces from the base of the shank to the front of the bowl, it also increases this curvature, recoiling further upon itself in a manner that gives the chamber a more upright posture. It is, perhaps, closer to a wave than a horn, something helped by an additional, asymmetrical faceting of the rim and a ring grain sandblast that ebbs and flows around the bowl’s sides.

The condition is very good. Some darkening and general wear to the inner rim, and slight finish fading.

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.87 / 22.09mm

Bowl Depth: 1.49″ / 37.84mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 42g