Former Bent Brandy for Larsen

Former Bent Brandy for Larsen
There is no mistaking Former's powerful, confident yet always sophisticated style in this older piece. The shape is actually derived from one that Sven developed in the mid-fifities, and which was featured prominently in the Dantonian catalog that he later produced when he teamed up with Teddy. But Former has given it a slight bulge at the front of the bowl, and while this ruffles the classical symmetry a bit, I think it adds originality and interest to this first rate design. Cut from well grained Corsican briar, it has a very nice and rather stout tapered shank, and one of Former's exceptional handcut taper bits. Condition is first rate. Though it isn't marked "Straight Grain," I cannot see why not, unless it was Ole Larsen trying to pay the least he could to the carver for what was then, as it is now, a top notch pipe.