Preben Holm (for Pipe-Lon) (Early Piece; c.1960s)) Extra Large Smooth Freehand with Horn (Estate)

Though he would tragically pass away at the age of 42, Preben Holm was one of the pioneering figures in the “Danish design” movement in 20th century pipe-making—a movement that still dominates the high-grade pipe scene. By hand-shaping his pipes on a belt sander, Holm was able to make the most of the patterns of grain hidden within briar, creating spectacular works of pipe art that also happened to be exceptional smokers. Holm’s work was so popular, in fact, that he not only put out pipes under numerous makes (such as Wengholt, Monte Verdi, Rungsted), but was also contracted by pipe shops and companies around the world to make pipes for them. Dunhill had Holm produce pipes for the Harcourt make, and Lane Ltd.’s Charatan had him make Ben Wade pipes, at a time when Charatan itself was already at the pinnacle of its freehand output. All of this was achieved in the span of around 25 years, before Holm’s untimely passing, and his pipes remain firm favorites among casual pipe smokers and die-hard collectors to this day.

As mentioned in our recent newsletters, this is one of a significant number of unsmoked Preben Holm pipes that came through our trade-in program recently. A few of those have already been snapped up by our most devoted newsletter readers (don’t forget to sign up if you haven’t already), though there are more to come.

As mentioned in the context of a few other pipes we’ve had in recently, Preben Holm got his first big break domestically by way of H. Dan-Christensen’s Pibe-Dan (later known as Pipe Dan) shop, in Copenhagen. As was the case with many Danish pipe makers during the 20th century, Pibe-Dan was Holm’s first major retailer and, as such, played a significant role in his “discovery” by pipe smokers and collectors of the time. Holm’s second big break, however, came by way of an American retailer, Pipe-Lon. Founded by Lon Schwartz, Pipe Lon was located in the US Virgin Islands and, at one point during Holm’s early career, served as the latter’s sole American retailer. This wasn’t because Holm’s pipes were unpopular, but because Schwartz purchased every one of them that he could buy. In his short autobiography, Holm remembered Schwartz fondly, speaking of their relationship as one of the things that encouraged him to dedicate his professional life to pipe making. This dedication (as well as word-of-mouth that Pipe Lon’s business generated) led to new markets and opportunities opening up, which led to Holm’s opening of a larger, fully-staffed workshop, which led to Holm’s conquering of the pipe smoking world during the 1970s.

I mention Holm’s partnership with Schwartz as this particular pipe is one that will have been sold through Pipe-Lon around the 1960s, based on its nomenclature. Stylistically, it’s much closer to the pipes carved during Holm’s “mature” period than the Pibe-Dan pieces we’ve also seen recently, though for both instances there’s a clear sense of what was to come—they are, one might say, representatives of stages in the evolution of the Danish “freehand” pipe.

The condition is good. Some inner rim darkening, slight handling marks, and the pipe’s horn ferrule has a few cosmetic inclusions that have developed over time (though its structural integrity remains without issue).

Details:

Length: 7″ / 177.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.78 / 19.81mm

Bowl Depth: 1.97″ / 50.03mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 42g