Jönsson (Lomma Pipes)

Jönsson is the workshop run single-handedly by Swedish carpenter Lars Jönsson (b. 1955). His pipes carry the Lomma stamp, named after the small town where the maker's family has lived for four generations. Working in this small settlement just north of Malmö, Jönsson learned the craft under two Danish masters, which is why his style is considered closer to the Danish school line than to a Swedish one.

What the Name Carries

The name Lomma carries more than a hometown marker. Sixten Ivarsson, regarded as the founding figure of the modern workshop pipe, was also born in this corner of southern Sweden in 1910, before settling in Copenhagen in the 1930s and laying the foundation of the Danish school. The stamp thus commemorates both the maker's own roots and the starting point of Scandinavian pipemaking. That a tradition founded in Denmark by a Swedish-born master should, generations later, continue through a maker again working in Lomma, is cited as a detail reinforcing the region's place in pipe history.

From Carpentry to Pipes

Jönsson has spent his entire working life with wood: furniture, ornaments, toys, and window restoration on old houses. His connection to pipes was established in 1998, during his devoted pursuit of sailing, when he met Tom Eltang. He first entered the workshop doing rustication work; as his assignments broadened over time he learned every stage of finishing a pipe from start to finish. His second mentor was Hans "Former" Nielsen. Drawing simultaneously from two different branches of the Danish school is regarded as the main factor explaining the workshop's present shape sensibility.

For a long time he worked on the Sara Eltang series, and later on the Former-Eltang series, which carries the joint signature of Eltang and Nielsen. His carpentry background also brought requests for work outside pipes: the case he made for one of Eltang's sets of seven, and the case he made in 2008 for the set assembled by members of the Swedish Pipe Club, stand at the head of these.

The Independent Workshop

2011 was the turning point. The Swedish Pipe Club approached Jönsson to design that year's club pipe; though hesitant at first, he accepted the offer, and the prototype he prepared was quickly approved by members. Records indicate an order of fifty-eight units resulted. This was the first pipe he designed entirely on his own, and it is regarded as the beginning of his independent pipemaking career. From that same year he turned to developing his own shapes.

Production runs single-handedly and on a small scale. Jönsson's work is built on briar and stays true to the Danish tradition's fluid line sensibility; he is known for shapes with rounded lines. Both plain polish and the rustication that opened the door to his craft appear among his surface finishes. The pipes are stamped "Lomma Sweden."