Danish Estates: Sixten Ivarsson Sandblasted Potato Sack with Bamboo (18) (1964) Tobacco Pipe

Product Number: 004-001-38723

Sixten Ivarsson's importance within the Danish artisan pipe movement cannot be understated, as he essentially started it, setting into motion a pipe-making revolution whose echoes are felt to this day. Not only this, but his pioneering work introduced a variety of new shapes into the collective consciousness of pipe makers, the vast majority of which are still crafted today. Sixten started making pipes shortly after World War II and, dissatisfied with the serial shaping style that many marques offered, Sixten began to craft all of his pipes entirely by hand at around the end of the 1950s, shaping the briar first with hand tools and a sanding wheel before drilling last: a technique that has since become the standard for artisan makers but that had never really been seen before in the pipe world. His success with this technique not only afforded him renown, but led to his acceptance of apprentices and his teaching of legendary figures that include Jess Chonowitsch, his son, Lars, Kazuhiro Fukuda, Jørn Micke, and his granddaughter Nanna. His death in 2001 marked the end of an era, but his legacy lives on through his work, the impact it had on the pipe world serving to define the Danish aesthetic and start the revolution of the artisan pipe-making movement.

A striking shape, the Potato Sack is one of Sixten's original, signature shapes that was immortalized on Stanwell's shape chart as a version of their "21" profile, and it stands out as an evolution of or alternative vision of his iconic Peewit. In silhouette, the two shapes are quite similar, with a sinuous, gracile arc through the shank and stem, though, if viewed from the front, the smoker's perspective, or above, the differences become immediately apparent. At the bowl, rather than maintaining a uniform plumpness in their flare out to the rim, the walls instead feature a remarkable compression at both the fore and aft side, creating a broad, ovoid expansion that terminates in a vast dome at the rim. This impressive breadth makes for a unique feel in hand and aptly insulates the chamber, and it is all the more impressive given it's poised atop a rounded heel spur: the cinched look of this spur contrasting the thick curves of the bowl's upper walls. Out back, a tight transition gives way to an extremely short shank that lifts to meet three knuckles of bamboo, the natural rhythm of the dense grass infusing this pipe with an organic charm and drawing some of the visual weight away from the bowl. A trim band of black vulcanite caps the bamboo extension and marks the junction to a matching saddle stem with a unique feature: a horizontal cinch at the base that creates a double-saddle look. Dressed in an earthy sandblast, the stummel showcases handsome grain, with the flanks of the bowl revealing blasted birdseye and the top and underside displaying rippling growth rings.

-John McElheny
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Measurements & Other Details


CONDITION:
Rim Darkening Chamber Carbonizing Tooth Marks Crackles in The Stem Material

STAMPING:
AN IVARSSON PRODUCT (text wrapped in circle)
1964
  • Length: 5.57 in./141.48 mm.
  • Weight: 1.12 oz./31.75 g.
  • Bowl Height: 1.60 in./40.64 mm.
  • Chamber Depth: 1.10 in./27.94 mm.
  • Chamber Diameter: 0.82 in./20.83 mm.
  • Outside Diameter: 1.15 in./29.21 mm.
  • Stem Material: Vulcanite
  • Filter: None
  • Shape: Freehand
  • Finish: Sandblast
  • Material: Briar
  • Country: Denmark
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