W.Ø. Larsen

W.Ø. Larsen was one of the most famous tobacco shops in Copenhagen, with a beautiful store located on Copenhagen's famous "Walking Street." During the flowering of the Danish pipe in the 1960's, they first began retailing pipes by such carvers as Sixten Ivarsson, Sven Knudsen, Poul Rasmussen, and Brakner.

W.Ø.Larsen Storefront

The W.Ø.Larsen Trademark

Urged on by his store manager Svend Bang (S. Bang), the owner, Ole Larsen, decided to begin making pipes in the basement of the shop. He first hired Sven Knudsen as the pipe maker, who soon passed the job to his protégé Hans “Former” Nielsen. Larsen’s fortunes rose along with the rest of the Danish pipe business, and Former was soon managing a group of carvers in the old Larsen cigar factory. Among these were Teddy Knudsen, Tonni Nielsen, Jess Chonowitsch, Peter Hedegaard and others, who were responsible for the Select and Straight Grain series before they branched out on their own. After Former left to start Bentley pipes in Switzerland, his duties were taken over by Soren Refbjerg Rasmussen, while the Straight Grains were made by Teddy’s student Benni Jorgenson. As Ole’s health began to fail, the reins were taken over by his son Nils. Nils became convinced that the way for Larsen to prosper was by entering the low-end market, and acquired the Georg Jensen pipe factory to make an array of less expensive pipes. This turned out to be a fatal error, and Larsen was recently sold to Stanwell, who continue to produce so-called “Larsen” pipes in their huge factory. Thus ended an important part of Danish pipe history. Courtesy, FinePipes.com

From The History of Danish Pipes, by Jakob Groth

Like most W.Ø.Larsen pipes, we don't know the maker, but they certainly were good! Courtesy, Smokingpipes.com

And sometimes, we do know the maker, like this beautiful W.Ø.Larsen Pearl by Tonni Nielsen. Courtesy, Richard Freidman

121 AR (121 Years) from 1985 with Horn Accent
Courtesy, Dennis Dreyer Collection

Early 1960's Straight Grain by Sven Knudsen
Courtesy, Dennis Dreyer Collection
(Photos by Robert Cooper)

Early 1960's Super 119 by Sven Knudsen(?)
Courtesy, Dennis Dreyer Collection

Super 81 Two-Tone
Courtesy, Dennis Dreyer Collection
(Photo by Chance Whittamore)

Larsen Select
Courtesy, Dennis Dreyer Collection

Larsen Select
Courtesy, Dennis Dreyer Collection

Larsen Sandblast with Horn
Courtesy, Dennis Dreyer Collection

Straight Grain F
Courtesy, Dennis Dreyer Collection

Horn & Bronze Spiraled Tamper with Leather Sheath
Courtesy, Dennis Dreyer Collection

The workshop of W.Ø.Larsen

W.Ø.Larsen is Denmark's oldest and probably most famous pipes and tobacco store, placed in the center of Copenhagen on the main pedestrian street, Stroget. If you visit Copenhagen and do a "pipe crawl" this store is a must. In the beginning of the 1960's the store began to sell Danish hand-made pipes, especially those of Poul Rasmussen. This went very well and Poul Rasmussen could not keep up with the demand. W.Ø.Larsen, with their dynamic business manager Svend Bang (who later started his own pipe business), decided to establish their own workshop in rooms next to the store.

The first manager of the pipe workshop was Sven Knudsen, but he soon left to make pipes under his own name. The next manager was Hans Nielsen, also known as "Former" (named after the late British actor George Formby, whom he was said to resemble. Coincidentally, in Danish, "Former" means "shapes"). Under the management of Former the workshop grew and W.Ø.Larsen pipes became a prominent name abroad. Among the prominent pipemakers educated here were Else Larsen (Denmark's first female pipemaker),Poul Ilsted, Ph. Vigen, Teddy Knudsen, Tonni Nielsen, and Peter Hedegaard.

Typical for the W.Ø.Larsen School were semi-classic shapes, meaning classic shapes, but with slight differences, often bring a little more full or round. The pipes often had lower center of gravity. A typical billard would have a bowl shaped more like a pear and the connection between the bowl and the shank would be clearly distinguished. Yellow and orange were colors more widely used for the finishes.

W. O. Larsen Straight Grain 10 & Pearl Grades, Courtesy Dennis Dreyer Collection

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  Straight Grain 10 Made by Teddy Knudsen in the 1980's   (Photo by Robert Cooper)

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  Straight Grain Pearl Made by Teddy Knudsen(?) with Rare Amber Composite Stem

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  Straight Grain Pearl Made by Teddy Knudsen in the 1980's

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  Large Four-Dot Straight Grain Pearl with Accompanying Horn & Bronze Tamper

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  Straight Grain 10 with Exotic Wood Accent

An unusual Pearl Grade Sitter, from the collection of Shane Zuke,
courtesy Anthony Cook, who recently restored it

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W.Ø. Larsen examples and details, courtesy of Doug Valitchka

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  Straght Grain

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  Straght Grain detail

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  Straght Grain detail

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  Stacked Brandy, partial blast

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  Stacked Brandy detail

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Catalogs

W.Ø. Larsen, along with Pipe-Dan, made beautiful catalogs in English. They were wonderfully illustrated and informative for pipe smokers of the time, and perhaps even more so for us looking back into that amazing era in the development of Danish pipe making.

Here are links to two complete W.Ø. Larsen catalogs on Pipedia: File:Wo1.pdf, and 1961-62: File:Wo2.pdf, courtesy of Danishpipemakers.com, and a few example pages from the 1961-62 catalog bellow:

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  Contents

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  Sixten Ivarsson designed pipes

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  Poul Rasmussen designed Billiards

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  more Poul Rasmussen designed pipes

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  more Poul Rasmussen designed pipes

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  Poul Rasmussen Bamboo Churchwarden

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  Brakner designed pipes

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  more Brakner designed pipes

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  more Brakner designed pipes

• The following is an excellent video in English of Hans "Former" Nielson interviewed by Lars Kiel about his early years in pipe repair, and how he transitioned into pipe making, and then to managing the shop at W.Ø. Larsen. The Early Days

An excellent selection of W.Ø. Larsen pipes is available at Pipedia underwriter, lepipe.it

Offsite Links to Catalogs

• W.Ø. Larsen 1960 - 1961
• W.Ø. Larsen 1961 - 1962
• W.Ø. Larsen 1963