Brian Madsen Rusticated Pot w/ Brass Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Brian Madsen is one of the most formidable Danish pipe makers to have emerged in the last ten years—which is quite something, considering Denmark’s entrenched position as a veritable breeding ground for premier artisans. A former student of Erik Nielsen (who was a student of Kurt Balleby, who was a student of Kai Nielsen and Preben Holm, and so on…), Madsen took up pipe making in 2014, joining a new wave of Danish greats such as Mike Sebastian Bay, Johannes “Suhr” Rasmussen, and Henri Sorensen (another student of Erik Nielsen). Rustication has a curious history within Danish pipe making. While Danish pipes are commonly associated with the pinnacle of straight grain pipes, rustication is no less an appreciated art in Denmark than it is in, for example, Italy. In other words, Denmark has been a world leader in showing that hand-carved finishes by no means preclude a pipe from being high-grade, a tradition that one can trace back at least to Peter Brakner in the 1950s. There is, however, a much greater variety when it comes to Danish rusticated finishes than Italian ones, likely in part because so much of Italian pipe making is still concentrated in collaborative workshops and factories, whereas Danish pipe making is largely a solo affair these days. Tom Eltang has his signature rusticated finishes, as does Hans “Former” Nielsen, Anne Julie, and Kent Rasmussen, to name but a few. And each is different. The same goes for Brian Madsen, whose technique looks, at first, like a ring grain sandblast; upon closer inspection, it looks like a line-carved emulation of sandblasted ring grain; but closer still, one notices it to be comprised of minute etches in the briar that rise and fall like an ocean’s rolling waves. This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. It comes with its original leather sleeve.   Details: Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm Bowl Width: 0.73 / 18.54mm Bowl Depth: 1.40″ / 35.56mm Weight: 1.5oz / 44g