Benner

Considering his reputation among some connoisseurs Bent Nielsen, nicknamed Benner, didn't leave too much usable traces. He is sometimes mentioned as a nephew of Viggo Nielsen, but in fact he's no relative of Viggo's clan.

Starting around 1970 he worked for Karl Erik some years and later for Stanwell, where he sketched a number of new models. Around the climax of enthusiasm for Danish freehands he started to release pipes under his own name. Not too many at all, which stuck more closely to classical models.

Markings: "Bent Nielsen" + "Hand Made" + "Denmark". Grading: 1 - 5 (ascending) on the stem.

He later worked under the synonym Benner. His German distributor however adviced him against using his nick for sales in Germany, because Benner didn't sound really Danish. Benner, as a Danish pipester recently told, "dared" to carve some more fancy styled pipes than Bent Nielsen did before and every now and then he made some pipes of olive wood, too.

Still he's supposed to make a few pipes every once in a while selling them to a few local shops in Denmark and a limited number of enthusiasts all over the world. For certain, his pipes are available in this Russian shop.