Bari

Bari is a pipe brand founded by Viggo Nielsen in the Danish city of Kolding, which carried on mid-scale series production for more than forty years. The brand sits somewhere between the country's large factories and one-man benches: it followed a production line that combined machine speed with hand finishing, playing for consistency rather than showmanship. Sources disagree on the founding year: Danish records give 1948, while Pipedia gives the winter of 1950-51.

The Kolding Years

Kolding, where Bari was founded, was one of the cities where the pipe trade was concentrated in postwar Denmark; alongside names such as Kriswill, more than a hundred people are said to have made their living from the trade there. Viggo Nielsen's two sons, Kai Nielsen and Jørgen Nielsen, entered the workshop while still children and worked there until 1975. After the brothers left that year, they began making their own pipes together with their father in Faaborg, on the island of Funen; these pipes are known in Denmark under the name Faaborg.

In terms of production philosophy, Bari is counted among the brands that adapted early to the modern Danish design language maturing around Stanwell. Its reinterpretation of free-flowing shapes within the limits of molded production keeps the brand, even if only at the edges, within the discussion of the Danish School.

Changes of Ownership

The company was sold in 1978 to the Hamburg-based Joh. Wilh. von Eicken GmbH; it is said to have employed thirty-three people at the time. Since this figure appears only in sources tracing back to Pipedia, it should not be taken as certain. German ownership did not move production to Germany; the benches stayed in Denmark. Over the following fifteen years, production was run by Åge Bøgelund and Helmer Thomsen. Thomsen took over the company in 1993, changed its name to Bari Piber Helmer Thomsen, and moved the workshop to a more suitable building in Vejen. Exactly when Bari closed for good is not clear in any of the sources available to us.

Production and Series

The brand's basic method stayed the same for decades: the briar block was brought to rough shape by machine, and the rest was finished by hand. Such an arrangement suits repeatable, long-lived models rather than individually signed top-tier pieces. Bari is therefore remembered in collecting circles not among the pricey signatures but among the series producers who knew their craft.

The best-known of its series are the smooth-finished Classic Diamond and the sandblasted Wiking; beyond these, a large number of series named by finish and shape were used. The "Excellent" and "DON" stamps are said to have been Bari's second-quality lines, though even the source giving this is hedged, noting that the name "Excellent" may in fact have been another manufacturer's sub-brand. Pairings of this kind based on stamp alone should not be taken as certain.