Sixten Ivarsson 1971 Sandblasted Dublin w/ Bamboo Estate Briar Pipe, Danish Estates

Description

Though he was born in Sweden and retained his Swedish citizenship throughout his life, and though there were pipe makers in Denmark long before he arrived, Sixten Ivarsson is considered to be the father of “Danish” pipe making. After a stint as a mechanic and a debt collector, Ivarsson found himself stopping by Suhr’s Pibemageri, a pipe workshop, in need of a new stem for his pipe. The foreman was absent and the lathe was broken, so Ivarsson took it upon himself to fix the lathe and cut the stem himself. Thus began his career as a pipe repairman, then as one of Suhr’s resident pipe makers, and, ultimately its foreman. Here he had some of his first apprentices, such as Poul Rasmussen, and his first taste of fame, with his distinctive approach to classical pipe shapes attracting significant attention. This included the attention of Poul Nielsen, who ran the Stanwell pipe factory, and who had the bright idea of commissioning Ivarsson to design shapes for Stanwell pipes.
Ivarsson left Suhr’s Pibemageri in 1956, setting up his own workshop in Copenhagen, but his renown, his collaborations with Stanwell, and his “school” of apprentices would continue to grow until his passing in 2001. He became a worldwide sensation in pipe making; taught a veritable who’s who of post-war artisans, including Bo Nordh, Jess Chonowitsch, Jørn Micke, Hiroyuki Tokutomi, and his son and granddaughter, Lars Ivarsson and Nanna Ivarsson; and contributed scores of shapes for Stanwell across a nearly five-decade partnership. Today, there are few artisans who could truly claim to have not been inspired or affected by Ivarsson’s work in some way.

Aside from being one of the fathers of Scandinavian pipes, Sixten Ivarsson is generally known for two quite different things: 1) pioneering, modern, and decidedly extraordinary pipe designs; and 2) classically-minded, conservative, and decidedly ordinary pipe designs. The latter was a lifelong affair, with Ivarsson’s beautiful renditions of classic Anglo-French shapes first attracting the attention of pipe smokers in the late 1940s and early 1950s (and Poul Stanwell, who was Poul Nielsen at the time). While he created plenty of unorthodox shapes that contemporary artisans still return to, right up until the end of his life, Ivarsson made billiards, Zulus, pots, and, of course Dublins. Ivarsson was, as many commentators have noted, a functionalist at heart, dedicated to simply crafting the most perfect smoking instruments he could. Though plenty of companies and artisans created bamboo-shanked pipes following the Second World War and its consequent briar shortage (see, for example, the Dunhill Whangee), Ivarsson was nonetheless able to make staid designs such as the bamboo-shank Dublin into a signature “Ivarsson product.”

The condition is very good. Slight inner rim charring, some rim darkening, and some finish fading on the bowl.

 

Details:

Length: 5.4″ / 137.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.74 / 18.79mm

Bowl Depth: 1.56″ / 39.62mm

Weight: 1.0oz / 30g