Danish Estates: Former Partially Sandblasted Bent Bulldog (Unsmoked) Tobacco Pipe

The name of Hans "Former" Nielsen is one spoken with great respect among the pipe-making world, with his illustrious career spanning nearly seven decades. Former's deft understanding of the craft reaches back to the age of 15, when he got his first job doing pipe repair at Poul Rasmussen's pipe shop. He would learn the intricacies of pipe making not only there, but also while working part-time with Sven Knudsen. Former carried this foundational knowledge into his tenure at W.Ø. Larsen, where he would work for ten years, later advancing to a supervisor role. In the meantime, he experimented in his own workshop, where he began making pipes in his name and in his personal style, earning him a world-renowned reputation for excellence and setting the course for his later career.

This bent Bulldog from Former is sleek in profile and bold in presence, featuring a character that borders on neoclassical with its prominent bowl filling the hand easily. The bowl boasts a robust figure, with sturdy walls flaring broadly toward the mid-set waist, wrapped with a pair of crisp beadlines that mark a sharp taper toward the rim. A sturdy diamond shank gently lifts out of the transition from the bowl and meets a slightly bent saddle stem of warm, swirling cumberland to form a graceful posture. Complementing the cumberland's tones is the stummel's rich, chocolate-hued sandblast, which lends the piece a rugged texture for the hand to appreciate.