Yang Kun Sandblasted Dublin w/ Masur Birch Handmade Briar Pipe, New

Description

Over the past few decades, the world of pipes has grown exponentially, with artisans from ever more diverse backgrounds and locales emerging and thriving. But despite the differences in cultures that this expansion implicates, some things, it seems, are universal. Chinese pipe maker Yang Kun was an artist working in film and television until, one day, a friend showed him a book detailing the life and pipes of Sixten Ivarsson. In that moment, something clicked for Yang, in much the same way that countless individuals have been “awakened” upon an encounter with Ivarsson’s work. And, like so many others over the past 8 decades, Yang’s encounter moved him toward pipe making as a vocation.

In the years that followed, Yang immersed himself in artisan pipe making. He undertook an apprenticeship with Chinese master Hongjian Qiu, built a workshop of his own, and carefully studied the greats of pipe making, past and present. Sixten Ivarsson, Bo Nordh, Jorn Micke, Lars Ivarsson, S. Bang, and Jess Chonowitsch were sources of inspiration, but so too were Yang’s contemporaries in China, such as Ping Zhan, John He, and Sam Cui. In 2012, Yang took on a full-time career as a pipe maker, which he has remained for nearly 15 years, crafting high-grade briars in a shop overlooked by the mountains of Liuzhou.

Yang Kun’s pipes tend to be short and plump, taking on forms whose closest comparisons are those of Danish legends Jorn Micke and Jess Chonowitsch. When examining his pipes, one can almost see the works of such influences as stages in the the development of Yang’s own designs, not unlike the old evolutionary hypothesis that the development of an embryo recapitulates aspects of its ancestral species. At the end of either process, of course, there emerges something new. One can see a little of Micke and a little of Chonowitsch in this Dublin, for example, but one can also see it diverge. This is especially the case for its finishing, incorporating a remarkably sharp, brick-red contrast sandblast and masur birch and ebonite split stem.

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.75 / 19.05mm

Bowl Depth: 1.44″ / 36.57mm

Weight: 2.0oz / 58g