W.O. Larsen (1989) Select 125 AR Smooth Stack Brandy with Boxwood (Estate)

W.Ø. Larsen was a tobacconist in Copenhagen Denmark. In the 1960s, when Danish-style pipes were becoming highly sought after, thanks to revolutionary pipe-makers such as Sixten Ivarsson, a workshop was set up on the Larsen premises to produce enough high-grade Danish pipes to meet demand. This workshop was staffed by the emerging masters of Danish pipe-making, such as Sven and Teddy Knudsen, Hans “Former” Nielsen, Jess Chonowitsch, Poul Ilsted, and Benni Jorgensen.

W.Ø. Larsen is not a name typically associated with the “pipe of the year” concept. For a few years in the 2010s, there was an annual Pipe of the Year released under the W.Ø. Larsen name, though by this point, Scandinavian Tobacco Group had owned the rights to name for a long time, and the pipes themselves were not made by a dedicated W.Ø. Larsen workshop or factory, but by Stanwell, which is also owned by STG. It does seem, however, that a small number of anniversary-themed pipes were released in the 1980s and ’90s under the W.Ø. Larsen name, back when the rights to that name were still owned by the Larsen family, and when those pipes were still made by the family’s Copenhagen workshop—the one staffed with all of those Danish greats we revere to this day.

In 1985, or example a series of “121 ÅR” (“121 Years”) pipes were released, commemorating 121 years since the founding of the W.Ø. Larsen company (note: the company, not the workshop, as pipes were a relatively late addition to W.Ø. Larsen’s house-brand wares). These took the form of a horn-accented Dublin that had been designed by Sven Knudsen for W.Ø. Larsen in the workshop’s early days. In 1993, W.Ø. Larsen released a series of pipes in a brandy shape, each with silver accents expressly celebrating 130 years of the company’s existence (I confess that I do not know if these were a specific shape in the workshop’s history).

W.Ø. Larsen celebrated its 125th anniversary with pipes just like this one; a supple, brandyish stack rendition with a boxwood ferrule. Given how infrequently these pipes appear on the estates market, I assume that not many were made. This particular example has the further honor of being a Select grade, from the higher end of W.Ø. Larsen’s already high-end output.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. This pipe comes with its original box and sleeve.

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.77 / 19.55mm

Bowl Depth: 2.09″ / 53.08mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 47g