Lars Ivarsson: Smooth Long Shanked Bent Brandy (3408) Tobacco Pipe

While my job, that of making observations and critiquing a product, with the ultimate goal being a "sale", really has no analog out there within the pipe world. when we get to this level, I have some company in other products. Looking at this incredible Lars Ivarsson masterpiece, a pipe that could be the anchor and showpiece of any collection in the world, does the man who writes copy for Blancpain Grande Complication chronograph feel at a bit of loss for words? When Van Cleef & Arpels unveiled their $730,000 "Mystery Masterpiece" fountain pen, and told their copywriter to "run with it", did he stare at a blinking cursor for what seemed like hours?

Lars, son of Sixten and current head of the Ivarsson carving dynasty, honored us by asking us to represent him in the sale of this one of a kind, briar masterpiece. The maxim of "The likelihood of achieving compositional cohesion runs in direct, inverse proportion to the length of a pipe" never seems to affect Lars. And the fact that he achieves this level of perfection, while eschewing the benefits of long, malleable bits almost defies belief. With a length of over seven inches and a spherical bowl that bears a 1.12 to 1 height to diameter ratio, Master Ivarsson crafted an iconic briar of such perfection, that even a fraction of a millimeter deviation from its present form would result in its diminishment as a whole. Even the spacing of the grain on the the bowl, and again on the shank contributes to an overall sense of harmony and cohesion. This isn't a "pipe", this is a Lars Ivarsson.

--Bear Graves