WO Larsen Super 86 Smooth Dublin 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.

The “86” was a very early W.O. Larsen shape, first appearing during the early 1960s and was, as with many shapes from that period, presumably designed by the workshop’s first foreman, Sven Knudsen. It’s certainly within Knudsen’s wheelhouse; a slender, quarter bent Dublin shape with a supple figure, and a palpable lightness, with similarities to his famous Square and Swan designs. It is, as I’ve said of other pipes in this vein, a “transitional” shape in Danish pipe making, one occupying a mid-point between the English-inspired briars of the early 20th century and the very modern ones Denmark is most famous for today. Being a W.O. Larsen the pipe is, of course, well made, with good grain, but most of all, a simple elegance to it that—one could argue—got a little lost in the evolution of the Danish high-grade pipe.

The condition is good. Minor inner rim charring and chamber slightly over-reamed.

Details:

Length: 6.4″ / 162.5mm

Bowl Width: 0.98 / 24.89mm

Bowl Depth: 1.46″ / 37.08mm

Weight: 1.1oz / 34g