Lasse Skovgaard: Partially Sandblasted Mushroom Tobacco Pipe

The son of renowned artisan Benni Jørgensen, Skovgaard has pipe making in his blood, starting with W.Ø. Larsen at 16 where he made tampers and carved pipes in his spare time to practice the art. After carving over 100 blocks of briar, he began to meet the exacting standards of both Larsen and his father, moving on to make pipes for the Danish workshop at 18 and rising swiftly to begin crafting their coveted Straight Grain pieces at 19 years old. After being urged by family friend Teddy Knudsen, Skovgaard began carving his own pipes, taking a small selection to the Chicago Pipe Show and selling out two years in a row, starting his career as an artisan carver.

This Mushroom is an excellent example of Skovgaard's skill in rendering shapes of an overt organicism, with no shortage of curves, flares, texture, and fluid lines, all coming together in this handsomely asymmetric shape. The shank lifts upward out of a tightly knit transition and flares out to a dramatic teardrop-shaped face which is taller than the rim, meeting a well-bent, acrobatic stem which promises comfortable smoking and extends the reach of this pipe to seven inches. An expansion ring stylistically mirrors the shank face flare at the stem's base and the point of the face's teardrop starts a meandering ridgeline which wraps around the left flank of the shank before dipping into the heel and pushing out on the right side, rising through the wall of the bowl and terminating just beneath the expansive rim. The shaping of this rim is iconic to much of Skovgaard's work, flaring out strikingly from the already flaring walls of the bowl in a Calabash-like fashion and rising at the aft while dipping at the fore, all in a domed shape whose own curving ridge speaks to the shape's namesake. Dressed in a crisp, auburn sandblast, much of the stummel showcases stacks of rippling growth rings, while the rim and shank face are polished smooth and finished in a vibrant contrast stain that reveals swirling birdseye.