Jared Coles 2023 Sandblasted Brandy w/ Boxwood Estate Briar Pipe, American Estates

Description

Jared Coles is a North American pipe-maker based in California. Coles is one of the undisputed masters of the contemporary American artisan scene, but that shouldn’t be surprising given the teachers he’s had. A pipe smoker since an early age, Coles discovered high-grade pipes while studying at college and took up pipe-making himself in 2008. Coles received precious instruction and advice on making his own high-grades from Jeff “J. Alan” Gracik and Todd Johnson, with the Gracik continuing to provide guidance when Coles teamed up with his friend John Klose to found the collaborative J&J Pipes brand. J&J achieved significant success, but was dissolved in 2015, after which Coles and Klose continued to produce pipes under their own names.

It is hard to overstate the influence of the Ivarsson family on artisan pipe design, though in the case of American pipe making, it has been its second and third generations that have been the most decisive. In other words, rather than Sixten Ivarsson, it was his son Lars Ivarsson, and Lars’ daughter Nanna Ivarsson, who had the most profound and direct role in making American high-grades what they are today. Lars was, of course, a mentor and good friend of Todd Johnson, who in turn mentored many of the 21st century’s most prominent American carvers. Though teaching is not simply a case of filling one’s pupils heads with one’s own ideas, and while true learning coincides with an increasing autonomy, some predilections and styles do, inevitably pass along that great chain. Jared Coles’ portfolio includes plenty of examples of explicit homages to the bent billiards and brandies of Lars Ivarsson, which is already the case for so many artisans due to Lars’ stature, but in Coles’ case, he is, pedagogically, at only one remove from the former. This sandblasted brandy (or bent billiard, as I think Coles prefers to think of them as such) displays much of the organic heft associated with Lars, though its finishing is perhaps more “American.” As Coles known to do, this one has its sandblast finish “turned up to 11,” pushing the ring grain of the briar into a deep, craggy, and highly assertive relief. The pipe’s dark, slight contrast stain is offset by a ring of boxwood, which caps a transition to its black ebonite stem.

The condition is fair. Rim darkening and finish fading on the bowl.

 

Details:

Length: 5.4″ / 137.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.82 / 20.82mm

Bowl Depth: 1.60″ / 40.64mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 48g