Preben Holm Hand Cut (5) Magnum Smooth Freehand Sitter with Horn (Unsmoked 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.

Preben Holm’s pipes were seldom small; they were typically large, or extra large, by Anglo-French standards. On the other hand, they were not commonly magnum-sized either. As every pipe maker knows, the larger a pipe is, the greater the chance that an unsightly imperfection, or even a flaw, in the briar will make itself known during the shaping process, and even freehand pipes are not immune from this fact of nature. With the most recent batch of Preben Holm pipes we’ve had in, two things have been apparent: he knew how to pick them, as they say, and he liked them big. This looks to be a relatively early piece from Holm’s days running his Copenhagen workshop, though it is exactly the caliber of pipe that Holm was known for in terms of grain, while also being seriously large. Also interesting is the pipe’s animal horn ferrule, something Holm used far less frequently later on in his career, whose golden hue offsets the brown of the briar and the black of the mouthpiece very nicely.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. Some slight inclusions in the pipe’s horn ferrule, though nothing that would affect its structural stability.

Details:

Length: 8.2″ / 208.2mm

Bowl Width: 0.88 / 22.35mm

Bowl Depth: 2.20″ / 55.88mm

Weight: 3.7oz / 106g