Børgart (Leo Børgart)

Børgart is the name given to the pipes carrying Danish maker Leo Børgart's own name. A master who never trained at any workshop and moved into the trade only in his late forties, the number of pipes he produced always remained limited. For this reason his signature is not among the names first mentioned when the Danish school comes up, but is better known as a name tracked by collectors gathering individual examples.

From Wood to Pipes

Børgart was born in Copenhagen in April 1944. He began his working life with a woodworking apprenticeship, followed by a long period in civil service: he served as a police officer in Copenhagen for twenty-five years. Pipemaking came into the picture during these years, purely as a leisure pursuit; his first buyers were his close circle, and these small sales were enough to cover the cost of materials.

According to the master's own account, in 1991 a Milanese businessman offered to buy his entire output; Børgart thereupon left civil service and moved into full-time pipemaking. There is no independent record of this event beyond his own statement. In later years he took part in the Danish Pipemakers craftsmen's group. Contact records for the master place his workshop around Dannemare on the island of Lolland. His death year is given in sources as 2009; this date has not been confirmed by an official record.

Approach to Shape

Børgart's work sits somewhere between the classic mould and freeform. Some of his examples drift far enough from the mould to approach a freehand approach, while others are plain interpretations of recognised families such as the Rhodesian or bulldog. According to a common view among collectors, what these two extremes share is an interest in the rougher, more sculpted look of the lines between bowl and shank that predates the settling of classic proportions.

The most discussed detail is the shank ferrule. Børgart does not leave this thin band as a plain joining piece; he uses unusual materials that create colour and texture contrast with the briar bowl, and in some examples uses gold. The cleanliness of finish in the mouthpiece work is also considered part of the same care. Bowls were made both filtered and unfiltered.

Marks and Current Status

The pipes are signed with the master's surname; the phrases "Hand Cut" and "In Denmark" in cursive and the letters "LB" are among the marks seen. An additional mark featuring a crowned lion figure is reported on some examples, but which pipes carry this figure is not clear. Since production never reached factory scale at any stage, Børgart-marked pipes are today found only in secondhand circulation; no published breakdown of total production exists.