Lasse Skovgaard: Smooth Bent Dublin Tobacco Pipe

The son of renowned artisan Benni Jørgensen, Lasse Skovgaard comes from a pipe making lineage, breaking into the world of carving at the early age of 16, where he made horn tampers for W.Ø.Larsen, before, two years later, making his way to shaping the Danish workshop's high-grade pipes. After a push from family friend Teddy Knudsen, he began to carve pipes on his own, selling out his entire stock of pipes two years in a row at the Chicago Pipe show. He is now an accomplished artisan in his own right, with a shaping style that, while certainly reminiscent of the traditional Danish school we know, is also highly organic and dramatic, such is the case with this bent Dublin.

A sweeping sense of curve pervades every aspect of this pipe's construction, and, despite its multiple flares and tapers, a single languid s-curve can be seen in the central line from button to rim. A gently arced tapered stem of jet black vulcanite ebbs out of a domed, ridgeline-adorned shank end, whose face has been chamfered and shaped in a way that allows the stem to perfectly nestle into it, the seamless construction emphasizing the pipe's organic leaning. A slight taper runs from the shank end's ridge to just before the midpoint, sloping downward before lifting back up at the heel, expanding naturally into the striking bowl, with the transition made tight by the gentle rearward curve of the aft end of said bowl.

A wavering ridgeline encircles the widest portion of the bowl near the top, emphasizing its shape and adding a touch of forward momentum thanks to the fore's understated outcropping there, dipping down just a touch before rising into the inflated rim. Said rim reinforces the shape of the bowl, with the fore side near the chamber,more bulbous than the aft. This is a feature we've seen quite a few times in Skovgaard's work, and every time this Mushroom-like shaping impresses with its immediate urging toward naturalism. A warm, vibrant mahogany stain dresses the briar here, with flame grain encircling the bowl and flanking the shank, while a wealth of birdseye peppers the rim and shank end.