Chris Herriot Smooth “Dan Shape Conic” Stack with Fordite (New)

About this pipe:

In 2003, one of France’s preeminent pipe luminaries, Erwin Van Hove, jubilantly proclaimed, “Hallelujah! One of the very best American artisans has recently settled on French soil.” Two decades later, Antoine Grenard, director of Chapuis-Comoy and president of the Confrérie des Maîtres-Pipiers de Saint-Claude, oversaw the induction of another artisan originally from the Anglophone world into its hallowed brotherhood. Van Hove was, of course, welcoming Trever Talbert. The Confrérie, on the other hand, was welcoming Chris Herriot. Parallels between the two are difficult to ignore; both were outsiders who laid down roots in France and, crucially, thrived by it. Both forged connections with the Francophone pipe community, developing friendships and associations that would help them lay the foundations of their respective brands. And both would build something on these foundations that garnered them significant national and international acclaim. In Herriot’s case, this meant apprenticing under Bruno Nuttens, spending several days each week laboring in Nuttens’ Charpey workshop, and the rest of his time in his own.

As someone with a firm background in traditional, Anglo-French design, Dublins have been a staple in Chris Herriot’s output since the early days of his career. And though traditional Dublins still feature prominently in his output, recent years have seen him leaning further into Danish-style renditions. Thus far, one could group his Danish Dublins into two groups; those evocative of Scandinavian artisan briars in the early post-war decades, and the more modern—sometimes freeform—variations that came to prominence around the 1960s and 1970s.

This particular Dublin rendition is decidedly in the latter vein, with a specific point of reference in its approach to form. That reference is Pibe-Dan (later known as Pipe Dan) and the “Dan Shape Reformed,” a pioneering Danish workshop in the 20th century and its signature, checkmark-figured stack shapes. Like his mentor Nuttens, Herriot is a great fan of the designs first created at Pipe-Dan, especially the workshop’s “Conic” Dublins. Here Herriot has stayed faithful to the proportions of the original Conic series, while also giving it a more contemporary ornamentation by way of layered Fordite.

Details:

Length: 5.4″ / 137.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.66 / 16.76mm

Bowl Depth: 2.06″ / 52.32mm

Weight: 0.9oz / 28g