The third installment in my latest commission obsession, having current makers create their own interpretations of some of my favorite pipes in my collection that were made by carvers who no longer produce pipes.
The original inspiration piece for this one is a special pipe for a multitude of reasons. I picked it up from the notorious collector Rex Poggenpohl at my first ever Chicago Pipe Show. It was crafted by Peter Hedegaard who unfortunately passed away after an illness in 2007. Rex views Peter as one of the greatest pipe makers of his generation and I am inclined to agree. He created pipes in a breadth of different shapes, had a serious affinity for bamboo, and was a master of grain orientation. But beyond that, this piece just simply smokes incredibly well. It is also an iconic shape that has become somewhat synonymous with the Danish shaping revolution of the mid-20th century, and remains loved and admired by enthusiastic collectors of Danish pipes today, the Peewit. Peter nailed the grain orientation on this pipe as well, as he often did, pulling the straight grain from a concentric center on the bottom of the heel, and flaring out almost perfectly with the shape of the stummel as it expands towards the rim, producing an incredibly organic feel. Here is the original.
While there are more and more modern pipe carvers producing the Peewit shape today, especially in recent years, there is one in particular who has always stood out to me as the american authority on the shape. Abe Herbaugh is a an absolute master of the craft regardless of shape, whether it's purely traditional british shaping, or a total freehand wonkfest, Abe will knock it out of the park, but his peewits are particularly striking. I have relied on his expertise in each and every collection project I've done so far, which have included him turning his own silver spigots, turning a shank mount out of a fossilized walrus tooth, and now creating his own interpretation of the work of a Danish legend. And once again, Abe has delivered.
Definitely the closest thing to a "clone" in the series so far, Abe decided to stick pretty close to the original in his homage to the Hedegaard pipe that inspired this one. I definitely love the liberties the first two carvers in this series took to make the shapes their own, but there is also something wonderful about executing something so perfectly close to the original, with only minor variations, particularly when emulating someone as legendary as Peter's work. You don't mess with genius. Abe's interpretation of the shape has a slightly more acorn-like bowl, a subtle band of ebonite at the base of the bamboo, a much more fluid and continuous bend through the shank and stem, and has also been trimmed down to a much more preferable size for my personal taste. He also nailed the grain orientation, replicating what I love so much about it in the original piece, no small task! I could not be happier with Abe's work here, and I am thrilled to have a modern version of this piece to admire alongside the original. Here it is!
The original inspiration piece for this one is a special pipe for a multitude of reasons. I picked it up from the notorious collector Rex Poggenpohl at my first ever Chicago Pipe Show. It was crafted by Peter Hedegaard who unfortunately passed away after an illness in 2007. Rex views Peter as one of the greatest pipe makers of his generation and I am inclined to agree. He created pipes in a breadth of different shapes, had a serious affinity for bamboo, and was a master of grain orientation. But beyond that, this piece just simply smokes incredibly well. It is also an iconic shape that has become somewhat synonymous with the Danish shaping revolution of the mid-20th century, and remains loved and admired by enthusiastic collectors of Danish pipes today, the Peewit. Peter nailed the grain orientation on this pipe as well, as he often did, pulling the straight grain from a concentric center on the bottom of the heel, and flaring out almost perfectly with the shape of the stummel as it expands towards the rim, producing an incredibly organic feel. Here is the original.
While there are more and more modern pipe carvers producing the Peewit shape today, especially in recent years, there is one in particular who has always stood out to me as the american authority on the shape. Abe Herbaugh is a an absolute master of the craft regardless of shape, whether it's purely traditional british shaping, or a total freehand wonkfest, Abe will knock it out of the park, but his peewits are particularly striking. I have relied on his expertise in each and every collection project I've done so far, which have included him turning his own silver spigots, turning a shank mount out of a fossilized walrus tooth, and now creating his own interpretation of the work of a Danish legend. And once again, Abe has delivered.
Definitely the closest thing to a "clone" in the series so far, Abe decided to stick pretty close to the original in his homage to the Hedegaard pipe that inspired this one. I definitely love the liberties the first two carvers in this series took to make the shapes their own, but there is also something wonderful about executing something so perfectly close to the original, with only minor variations, particularly when emulating someone as legendary as Peter's work. You don't mess with genius. Abe's interpretation of the shape has a slightly more acorn-like bowl, a subtle band of ebonite at the base of the bamboo, a much more fluid and continuous bend through the shank and stem, and has also been trimmed down to a much more preferable size for my personal taste. He also nailed the grain orientation, replicating what I love so much about it in the original piece, no small task! I could not be happier with Abe's work here, and I am thrilled to have a modern version of this piece to admire alongside the original. Here it is!
