Herriot Pipes Natural Smooth Freehand Dublin w/ Plateaux Handmade Briar Pipe, New

Description

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 (himself a former student of Pierre Morel and Tom Eltang), spending several days each week laboring in Nuttens’ Charpey workshop, and the rest of his time in his own.

As mentioned when Herriot Pipes last graced our shop, Chris Herriot has been recently been spending time not only with one of his mentors, Bruno Nuttens, but with one of his mentors’ mentors, Tom Eltang. Herriot’s pilgrimages to Copenhagen to study under Eltang have borne fruit in a number of ways, from refining the technical aspects of his craft to taking the plunge into more freeform designs.

This particular pipe is one such freeform. One might say it strikes a middle ground between the Danish fancy (associated with figures such as Preben Holm, though in this instance, the most appropriate point of reference being Holm’s protégé, Poul Winslow), the French fleur, and the freehand pipes put out by Charatan during the Reuben and Lane eras. Impeccably grained, with just a few “beauty spots” here and there, it’s a stunning opener for what may well be a whole new genre of Herriot Pipes.

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.83 / 21.08mm

Bowl Depth: 1.70″ / 43.18mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 56g