Leo Pipes (Leon du Preez)

Leo Pipes is a small-scale pipe workshop South African painter Leon du Preez set up in the early 2000s in the Goodwood suburb of Cape Town. The brand name comes from a shortened form of the maker's name, and the pipes carry the LEO stamp. Production was run single-handedly and stopped entirely with du Preez's early death; for this reason, Leo-signed pipes are counted among the rarer surviving examples today.

The Maker's Path

Du Preez's primary profession was the visual arts. Records show he completed an undergraduate degree via Port Elizabeth Technikon followed by a postgraduate art program, held his first group exhibition at the Ann Bryant Art Gallery in East London, South Africa, and curated that same gallery for years. His early paintings focused on the homeless and the solitary; in later years he turned toward work centered on the ocean. His design-forward approach to pipes is most often traced to this artistic background.

His first encounter with pipes dates to simple experiments with bamboo during his school years. The work became serious around 2001, when he met Johan Slabbert, a retired police detective who made pipes under the Jobert brand. Du Preez soon began working as an apprentice under Slabbert, and the two shared the same working space in Goodwood for years. The maker also set up a second, fully equipped workshop at his own home, which also served as a backup production site for Jobert.

Materials and Method

Because briar blocks are not locally available in South Africa, both Jobert and Leo turned to the country's own woods. The main species used were wild olive and the thorny acacia known locally as black hookthorn; lead tree, mopane, and African ebony are also known to have been tried in the same circle. This use of native hardwoods is a typical example of how making pipes from woods other than briar arose, outside Europe, out of necessity.

The workshop's method was deliberately simple. Du Preez did not use a lathe; all shaping was done with a drill press and a disc sander. This naturally produced a freehand line where every piece is unique: bodies that followed the grain of the wood rather than symmetry. No varnish was used in finishing; the surface was simply buffed to a shine. This choice both leaves the natural texture of the native woods visible and allows the surface to develop its own patina over the course of use. A similar approach is seen at many small workshops working with alternative pipe-making woods.

Aftermath

Leon du Preez died unexpectedly at a young age; sources do not give an exact date. This loss marked the end not only of the Leo brand but, by one account, indirectly of Jobert as well: Johan Slabbert is known to have stopped making pipes some time later, and the brand's website closed as well. Today Leo pipes are remembered as a short-lived but distinctive link in the small South African school of makers working with materials other than briar.