Herriot Pipes Partially Sandblasted “Arne Jacobsen” Dublin w/ Horn Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

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.

After speaking to Chris Herriot, it turns out that this pipe was made before his first pilgrimage to visit Tom Eltang at the latter’s Copenhagen workshop. Still, Eltang’s influence already had a grip on France’s rising star, it seems. The basic design of this pipe, for example, is pure Eltang: taking its name from the renowned Danish functionalist architect, Arne Jacobsen, the “Arne” Dublin is essentially an ultra-lightweight, stacked rendition of the classic shape, not unlike the pipes that Jacobsen himself favored. While similar shapes pre-existed Eltang’s career (those pf Pibe-Dan, including Gert Holbek’s Horatio HUs, would be one key point of reference), Eltang would ultimately be the one to tweak his design into the one so easily recognized today. Of course, the thing about good designs is they travel, becoming staples within the informal shape charts of artisans around the globe (even Eltang’s neighbour, Hans “Former” Nielsen has his own renditions). This Herriot Pipes take on the Arne is an example of that and it is also an excellent specimen. With its tall, narrow bowl, it should make for a superb flake pipe, and at just over 20 grams in weight, it’s one that’ll easily clench for just about anyone. The finishing is great, too, with a crisp, bird’s-eye blast, a smooth rim, and a horn ferrule breaking the transition into the pipe’s hand-cut ebonite stem.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. It comes with its original sleeve. There is some very slight weathering on the horn accent, but nothing concerning.

 

Details:

Length: 6.0″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.69 / 17.52mm

Bowl Depth: 1.72″ / 43.68mm

Weight: 0.7oz / 22g