Herriot Pipes Smooth Asymmetric Dublin Handmade Briar Pipe, New

In 2003, one of France’s preeminent pipe luminaries, Erwin Van Hove, jubilantly proclaimed, “Hallelujah! One of the very best American artisans has recently settled on French soil.” Two decades later, Antoine Grenard, director of Chapuis-Comoy and president of the Confrérie des Maîtres-Pipiers de Saint-Claude, oversaw the induction of another artisan originally from the Anglophone world into its hallowed brotherhood. Van Hove was, of course, welcoming Trever Talbert. The Confrérie, on the other hand, was welcoming Chris Herriot. Parallels between the two are difficult to ignore; both were outsiders who laid down roots in France and, crucially, thrived by it. Both forged connections with the Francophone pipe community, developing friendships and associations that would help them lay the foundations of their respective brands. And both would build something on these foundations that garnered them significant national and international acclaim. In Herriot’s case, this meant apprenticing under Bruno Nuttens (himself a former student of Pierre Morel and Tom Eltang), spending several days each week laboring in Nuttens’ Charpey workshop, and the rest of his time in his own. As someone with a firm background in traditional, Anglo-French design, Dublins have been a staple in Chris Herriot’s output since the early days of his career. And though traditional Dublins still feature prominently in his output (including among the other pipes in this latest batch), recent years have seen him leaning further into Danish-style renditions. Thus far, one could group his Danish Dublins into two groups; those evocative of Scandinavian artisan briars in the early post-war decades, and the more freeform variations that came to prominence around the 1970s. This one falls into the latter grouping, whose origins for Herriot began with his initial studies with Tom Eltang, in Copenhagen. Having been carved freehand, it’s more naturalistic and organic than Herriot’s classical briars, giving it a flowing figure that culminates in the bowl’s markedly asymmetric, grain-directed flare.   Details: Length: 5.6″ / 142.2mm Bowl Width: 0.75 / 19.05mm Bowl Depth: 1.13″ / 28.70mm Weight: 1.4oz / 40g