Danish Estates: Anne Julie Smooth Lovat (Unsmoked) Tobacco Pipe

Anne Julie came to pipe making through her marriage to her late husband Poul Rasmussen. After his passing, Anne Julie took up the craft and has become something of a living legend within the industry. At one point, she was perhaps the most famous woman in all of pipe making, but her impact continued even outside of her immaculate designs. It was Julie who saw the astonishing prowess a young Tom Eltang had for the craft, and she mentored Eltang in the early days of his career, teaching him the finer points of balance and engineering. Stylistically, Julie's work hews closely to the streamlined, functional aesthetic often found within the Danish tradition, as evidenced by this sleek Lovat shape.

An incredibly lengthy design, this piece offers all of the form's distinctive features, including a poised, upright bowl, a protracted rounded shank, and an abbreviated saddle stem. Though stylistically quite traditional, this piece boasts a couple of key differences that distinguish it from other renditions of the shape — namely, the bowl's tall, supple frame and the shank's almost imperceptible taper. These aforementioned elements work in concert to foster the soft, elegant aesthetic associated with Danish pipe making. It's all handsomely dressed in a warm, traditional smooth finish that highlights fine tendrils of flame grain around the bowl, as well as tight cross grain along the shank.