Herriot Pipes Smooth Asymmetric Dublin 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.

Over the last year or so, Chris Herriot has, like his mentor Bruno Nuttens, spent a good amount of time in Denmark, on the invitation of Tom Eltang. And, just like Nuttens, Herriot has spent plenty of time studying under the Danish legend in his Copenhagen workshop. It was through Eltang that Herriot was able to brush up on his freehand shaping, for example, allowing Herriot to access shapes that he had previously shied away from. It’s also given rise to a very interesting synthesis of Danish and Anglo-French design philosophies in a significant portion of Herriot’s work.

This pipe, for example, is not too far from a traditional Dublin, which Herriot is well versed in. But the manner through which it was shaped has allowed it to be more organic, slightly asymmetrical, and even a little “floral,” in addition to unlocking some genuinely spectacular straight grain.

Details:

Length: 5.6″ / 142.24mm

Bowl Width: 0.77 / 19.55mm

Bowl Depth: 1.51″ /38.35mm

Weight: 1.7oz / 50g