Celius: Difference between revisions

After that he tried to establish himself as a pipemaker working solo up to the late 1980's. This period is characterised by permanent ups and downs; his success remained inconstant and changeable. He never managed to match the top quality of his teacher Rasmussen or the students of Rasmussen's workshop like Sven Knudsen, Former Nielsen or Tom Eltang. Svend Axel Celius passed away around 1999/2000.

* '''Fantasy''' line: these are those well-known "wild to slightly crazy" shaped fancy freehands. Predominantly stamped ''"Fantasy"'', there are however also pipes Celius stamped ''"Fancy"''. Today it is sheerly impossible to decide whether "Fantasy" and "Fancy" were temporarily made in coexistence, or whether the "Fancy" functioned more or less as a successor of the "Fantasy" in one of Celius' new starts. "Fantasy" and "Fancy" both have a grading by number from 1 - 6 (although 5 is unconfirmed). At least one grade 6 has been confirmed, belonging to Chip Fadeley, who reports the following: ''" I own a Celius Fantasy stamped #6.  I also own another which is a rusticated sitter, and it's stamped #2.  I've not met anyone who has heard of or seen a Celius rusticated pipe.  The #6 is a smooth pipe with nothing fancy about the straight grain, and plateau briar top and partial on the shank's end.  The shape is somewhat unusual because it has a long pointed front; and it has two separate flat spots on one side to perfectly accommodate the pairs of fingers made next to the index finger and pinky finger of a right-handed person.    The stamping Celius Fantasy Denmark appear exactly the same in slant and font style and height on both pipes... The #6 appears to have a rounded bottom when viewing it from the front and back; however, it appears pointed on either side. The index and ring finger can also be used singly with the thumb overtop the shank depending on how you want to hold this pipe.''

* '''Zenia''' line: pipes in classical forms. They are named for his daughter Zenia, Celius delivered this line for a limited time only.

* '''Chess''' line: the most important group of Celius pipes. The grading of these typical Danish freehands is borrowed from the chess pieces:  Pawn (sand-blasted), Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen to King. Pipes, where the natural bark of the briar was left at the rim of the bowl, were called and additionally stamped "Root". Furthermore these pipes had numbers from 1 to 31 (as far as known today). The numbers, we can take that for certain, denominate the shape. But please note that they surely have not the same binding character as the shape numbers of other manufacturers-- they rather stand for a basic form, that was modified often.