WO Larsen 120 Sandblasted Churchwarden w/ Horn Estate Briar Pipe, Danish Estates

Description

WO 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.

Churchwarden shapes are not typically associated with W.O. Larsen, and in my many years of selling pipes, I think I could count the number that have passed through my hands on just the one of them. This one is closer to a “demiwarden” if we wanted to be pedantic, though it is still a thoroughly long pipe, with the majority of that length being made up by its slender mouthpiece. The shape is a variation on a very old W.O. Larsen design, the “120,” which was created around 1960, when the workshop was first set up (though this pipe appears to have been made a decade or so later, judging by the nomenclature). It could be called a “Danish author” of sorts, with a nod to the classic Anglo-French renditions, but with the addition of a brass-stabilized horn ferrule and a more “modern” cut for its mouthpiece, both in its standard and demiwarden configurations. This is an example of the latter, wearing a nicely craggy rendition of W.O. Larsen’s burgundy Super sandblasted finish.

The condition is fair. Some inner rim charring, finish fading, and some weathering of the pipe’s horn ferrule.

Details:

Length: 7.4″ / 187.9mm

Bowl Width: 0.83 / 21.08mm

Bowl Depth: 1.36″ / 34.54mm

Weight: 1.8oz / 53g