Pipe Tristan Sandblasted 120 LC Bent Billiard Handmade Briar Pipe, New

Description

I used to say that Pipe Tristan’s Tristan Lefebvre was part of a “new wave” of “up-and-coming” artisans from France, the very birthplace of the briar pipe. But that description doesn’t do him justice these days. Lefebvre isn’t so much a “part” of the latest generation of French artisans as the craftsman leading the charge; likewise, he is no longer “up-and-coming,” but has already secured himself a place alongside historic compatriots such as Alain Albuisson, Paul Lanier, and Pierre Morel Sr and Jr. In fact, in 2025, he was inducted into the Confrérie des Maîtres Pipiers de Saint-Claude, a prestigious French association of master pipe makers whose ranks have included Albuisson, Lanier, and Morel the younger.

In the last couple of years, Tristan Lefebvre has become especially well known for his renditions of a very traditional, yet also very particular shape. The shape is commonly known as the “LC,” or the “Dunhill LC,” both on account of that being the shape code used by Dunhill back when the company manufactured such designs, and because, despite the fact that Dunhill was far from the only company to manufacture pipes in this vein, it’s Dunhill’s that have become the most memorable—one might call them the “Platonic form,” or “Platonic ideal” of that shape. While it is, at heart, a bent billiard, the LC bears several characteristics that separate it from similar shapes. Its bowl, for example, is exceptionally tall and decidedly plump, in a manner often likened to a goose egg; its shank and stem form a rather drastic, 3/4 bend, something similarly likened to a swan’s neck; and it is—typically—very large, especially for a shape that originated in early briars, which were, for the most part, notably small by today’s standards. Dunhill has not manufactured an LC in decades, but it has lived on nonetheless, not only as a “white whale” for Dunhill collectors, but also for makers and smokers of artisan pipes. The artisans themselves treat the shape as an object of study, not unlike a painter would the old masters, and as a means of testing their mettle, as it is highly labor-intensive and particularly challenging to get right (which no doubt factors into Dunhill’s decision to discontinue them, as well as the sheer variability of the shape back when it was in the make’s catalogs).

In this latest batch of pipes for us, Tristan Lefebvre continues to demonstrate his mastery of the form. This one, for example, pays homage to the curious subset of interwar Dunhill pipes that have come to be known—thanks to the late Dunhill historian John Loring—as the “120LC,” or “120 LC.” These were nominally Dunhill 120 shapes but, for some reason, they were closer to the shaping conventions of the LC, but not quite as large. It was, however, still a large pipe, with this one following suit, while also wearing the kind of rich sandblast relief finish associated with such pipes.

Details:

Length: 6.9″ / 175.2mm

Bowl Width: 0.88 / 22.35mm

Bowl Depth: 2.20″ / 55.88mm

Weight: 2.1oz / 60g