Lasse Skovgaard: Sandblasted Shield with Horn Tobacco Pipe

As the son of venerated pipe maker Benni Jørgensen, Lasse Skovgaard was particularly well-suited for the craft. By age 18, he was working at the prestigious W.Ø. Larsen workshop in Copenhagen, and continued to hone his craft with mentorship from the great Teddy Knudsen. He elevated his skills at the workshop before striking out on his own in 2004. He has since become on of Denmark's premier artisans, commanding a loyal following and a considerable reputation. While his portfolio can be quite diverse, ranging from classic Danish shapes to more whimsical Freehands, his work is united by clean lines, soft features, expert engineering, and stellar finishes, to which this Shield shape can attest.

The Shield is always a delightful sight, especially when fashioned by a carver like Skovgaard. The form's characteristic ridgeline bifurcates the bowl, but where other renditions tend to have the ridgeline terminate at the rim, this piece keeps the pronounced line consistent across the entirety of the bowl, from rim to heel. This effectively makes the protrusion of the ridgeline at rim and heel mirrors of one another, their sharply defined points book-ending and accentuating the fore of the bowl's inward curvature. The shank snakes out of the low-set transition before giving to an accenting mount of genuine horn and a saddle stem of jet-black vulcanite. The shimmering hues of the horn brighten the overall composition and bridge the shadowy complexion of the stummel to the dark color of the mouthpiece. The stummel wears a dark sandblast that beautifully commends the briar's natural grain orientation and draws out rippling waves of growth rings across the fore of the bowl.