W.O. Larsen Straight Grain Special Partially Sandblasted Dublin 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.

While even the “average” W.Ø. Larsen pipe embodied a rare excellence in pipe design and handicraft, the pinnacle of the workshop’s output were its Straight Grain and Birdseye grades. These were pipes made, from beginning to end, by the hands of W.Ø. Larsen’s highest ranking artisans at any given time, such as Sven Knudsen, Former, Tonni Nielsen, Jess Chonowitsch, Teddy Knudsen, or Benni Jorgensen. Naturally, such pipes were far from common, and even with a fully-functioning workshop on the its premises, W.Ø. Larsen contracted a few of their associated artisans to carve them in their own workshops and stamp them with the shop’s house branding—such were the lengths that the Larsen family went to so that they could maintain a stock of the finest pipes in Denmark.

As regards the Straight Grains, these were originally distinguished by their exemplary, smooth polished vertical briar patterns, and by the fact that, unlike the majority of W.Ø. Larsen pipes, they were made by a single, master artisan from start to finish. Later on, however, the Straight Grain classification was expanded to include pipes with exemplary horizontal grain patterns, expressed with a sandblasted relief finish. In contemporary parlance, we would call these “ring grain” pipes. I remember reading somewhere that it was Benni Jorgensen who developed the special finishing technique used to create ring grain sandblasted pipes for W.Ø. Larsen, so it is possible that this is one of his. Given the approach to form taken by this Dublin, on the other hand, it could easily be one of Teddy’s as well, though.

One last distinguishing feature of this pipe is its secondary designation—“Special.” This was another later addition to the W.Ø. Larsen portfolio, and was used for pipes that had supplemental ornamentation, such as accents. Here, that refers to the pipe’s honey-hued boxwood stem inlay, which offsets the darker colors of the bowl and mouthpiece very nicely.

The condition is great. Lightly smoked, but well cared for. This pipe comes with its original box and sleeve.

Details:

Length: 6.8″ / 172.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.90 / 22.8mm

Bowl Depth: 1.58″ / 40.13mm

Weight: 1.7oz / 50g