Moritz (Jürgen Moritz)

Moritz is the name given to the pipes German master Jürgen Moritz produces single-handedly at his bench in Mönchengladbach. There is no factory here, but a small workshop where every stage, from selecting the block to the final polish, is gathered in the same person. Moritz first came to the pipe as a collector, moving into production only years later; according to records, his actual profession is social pedagogy, and pipe making ran alongside this work for a long time.

Formal Approach

The workshop's center of gravity is freehand pipes: the block's grain determines the shape, and the master follows the path the grain shows. When he turns to classic families, he is known to settle most often on the billiard and its variants such as the brandy and pot. Freehand means working according to each block's own grain pattern rather than a set mold; in this method, no two pipes are alike. Nor is there a pursuit of uniformity in size: the same hand produces both large, voluminous bowls and quite slender, light pieces.

Stems are drawn from ebonite; archival records state that cumberland is also used. The properties and care of these materials are discussed in the stem materials article. Precious woods, bamboo shanks, horn, boxwood, and bone are used at the transitions between shank and bowl. Alongside a smooth polish, sandblasting and staining are also applied as surface treatments. Each pipe carries a small mark on the underside of the shank; archival records give the form of the mark as "J. Moritz — handmade."

Path to Mastery

Moritz's acquaintance with briar dates back to his youth. He worked part-time at a pipe shop during his university years, during which time he both handled a great many pieces of master work and built his own collection. His attempts at making his own pipes began in the early 2000s; his first examples were shown to acquaintances in the summer of 2004. These first pieces were finished without a lathe. In subsequent years the workshop was equipped, step by step, from a belt sander to a saw, from a polishing machine to his own sandblasting rig; stems too began to be turned on a lathe.

Two names are cited in the settling of his style. His closeness with German master Cornelius Mänz honed his discipline in measurement and finishing. A week spent in 2009 at Tom Eltang's workshop in Copenhagen is considered the turning point; Moritz's line, leaning on the Danish school, became largely defined through this contact.

Gatherings and Circulation

He first gained visibility at German pipe gatherings such as Rheinbach and Lohmar. In 2007 he attended the large pipe show in Chicago together with colleague Frank Axmacher; by his own account, they had the support of masters who had already been to Chicago in preparing for the trip. For the founding and history of the show, see the article on Frank Burla. Moritz's pipes have also entered collections outside Germany, in Denmark, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and China.