Mr. Andersen

Mr. Andersen is the brand not of a workshop but of a shop. Carrying what may be one of the most ordinary surnames imaginable in Denmark, this label was put on the market by Copenhagen pipe seller Remo Sørensen; its pipes, in turn, were carved by various Danish masters Sørensen commissioned. The brand is therefore a typical example of the "dealer brand" tradition common around the Danish school. In this system the shop sets the design and the name, and commissions the carving out to outside workshops; a single label can thus gather together the handiwork of quite different hands. Mr. Andersen's identity, difficult to pin down today, stems largely from this way of working. When the brand was founded is not on record; the known examples point to the second half of the 20th century.

Whose Hand It Comes From

Whose hand stands behind the label is an unresolved question in collector circles. The name most often cited in records is Jørgen Larsen, who worked within Larsen & Stigart; some surviving examples are cautiously attributed to him. Yet this attribution does not rest on solid ground: two different people named Jørgen Larsen were active in Danish pipe making during the same period, which leaves it unclear which Larsen is meant. Other Danish manufacturers such as Jarl and Chieftain also appear in accounts; the name Finn Andersen is mentioned only at the level of possibility. That records do not agree with one another is ordinary for dealer brands working on commission: different hands may lie behind the same label across different years and batches.

Name resemblance forms a separate layer of the issue. Søren Eric Andersen, who worked for a time at the Larsen & Stigart shop in Copenhagen, has said he was not pleased with the brand's name, pointing to the confusion caused by both Andersen and Larsen being among Denmark's most common surnames. This resemblance also lies behind the label occasionally being attributed to him; no document supports the attribution.

Marking and Shapes

On examples in circulation, the mark sits on the underside of the shank. At the top, the brand name appears in cursive script, below it the line "Hand Crafted," and at the bottom the line "Made in Denmark"; the series ends with a single-digit number. What this number corresponds to is not documented. In Danish workshops similar numbers often indicate a shape or size sequence, but since no such chart is known for Mr. Andersen, this is only a comparison.

The bulk of known examples are hand-shaped freehand bowls suited to the Danish taste of the period: crowned rims, plateau surfaces retaining part of the bark texture, flowing shank lines. Recorded restorations also include a freehand Dublin; classic shapes such as smooth billiards and brandies are also found. Bowls are carved from briar, and both rubber and acrylic stems are used. The brand is not in production today; its name lives on mainly through pipes in secondhand circulation.