Ljung
By Jan Andersson
Why do you start making pipes when you have passed 50 and have been a successful businessman during your whole grown-up life? The explanation is found in a brochure from the beginning of the 60’s, in which Arne tells us about himself. Please read it carefully! I sincerely hope that you will get the same feeling of wisdom and “joie de vivre” as I got when I read it:
I am a pipemaker and a happy human being.........
Can you be happy when you are 58 years old?
Can you be happy when you 3 years ago got a life-threatening illness?
When you due to this illness had to leave an occupation as a managing director for a car company?
The answer is Yes! – Despite all that I am a happy human being!
-happy to be alive...
-happy that a long standing hobby has become a stimulating way to earn my living...
-happy to be an integrated human being...
-happy to have the time and possibility to smell the flowers along the road...
-happy to be engaged as the first and only teacher in pipe-making as a hobby...
-happy to be the only pipe-maker in Sweden...
-happy that my pipes have been appreciated not only in Sweden, but on the continent and in the U.S. as well...
-happy that as long as the last pipe-smoking individualist is still alive, pipe-making as a handicraft of art will survive
-happy that THE SWEDISH SOCIETY FOR INDUSTRIAL DESIGN has my pipes on its exhibition ART – HANDICRAFT...
Yes, that was what I wanted to tell.
Arne Ljung
Arne Ljung died in 1998, 85 years old. He had then suffered from cancer for more than 30 years, but not until the very last year he was too weak to work. There are not many of his pipes left here in Sweden, as the main part was exported. Most of his pipes are probably to be found in Japan, where Arne more or less became a legend and huge prices were paid for his work of art.