Poul Ilsted (1E) Smooth Brandy with Cultured Amber (Estate)

Like many of the old masters of Danish pipe making, Poul Ilsted spent many years moving between the nation’s great workshops before achieving the stratospheric heights of his mature, solo career. First he worked with Erik Nørding, and while Erik was quick to recognize the young carver’s talent, Ilsted himself was dissatisfied with the work he was doing. Luckily for Ilsted, he had struck up a friendship with another budding pipe maker working under Nørding, Jens “Tao” Nielsen, with whom he decided to found a completely new pipe making operation. Tao and Ilsted’s venture was named Svendborg, after the small Danish town in which it was situated. Svendborg would end up being a rather popular, and historically significant, institution in the history of Danish pipes, though it would appear that Ilsted got “cold feet” about the endeavor, resigning just a few years after its founding. After Svendborg, Ilsted bounced around the great Danish workshops once more, including a second stint at Nørding and another at W.Ø. Larsen. In the mid-1970s, Ilsted finally opted to establish himself as an independent artisan, and spent the next forty years attaining degrees of respect and renown that very few pipe makers have ever come close to. Ilsted passed away in 2017.

Preferences are a very difficult thing to give up, and the history of artisan pipes is in large part a history of pipe makers following their own preferences when they did not align with those of their employer. Ilsted (along with Tao) left Nørding because he did not want to make Nørding-style pipes, regardless of how diverse that style was. Instead, he wanted to make pipes of a more classical bent, which is evident both from the designs he produced with Tao for the Svendborg and Tao & Ilsted makes, and in the designs he produced after going completely solo. Many of Ilsted’s pipes were distinctly faceted explorations of traditional bulldog, Dublin, and volcano shapes, and many others were even more “old school”—billiards, brandies, Lovats, all carved with a singular level of precision and beauty. This particular pipe falls into that latter camp, taking the form of a good-sized, straight grain brandy. Something of an Ilsted signature is the accent this one features at the base of the mouthpiece, which is a unique material known as “cultured amber.” It is not amber per se, but a synthetic that was, for a time, produced on a small scale in Denmark, and which was utilized by a number of famous artisans and workshops in the later 20th and early 21st centuries. Unfortunately, as the bulk of the manufacturing for this material was undertaken by just one woman, the exact recipe for it was lost when she passed away, essentially taking it to her grave.

The condition is good. A couple of spots of rim charring and some finish fading.

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.77 / 19.55mm

Bowl Depth: 1.60″ / 40.64mm

Weight: 1.8oz / 52g