Børgart (Leo Børgart)

Børgart is the name given to the pipes carrying Danish maker Leo Børgart's own name. A master who never trained at any workshop and moved into the trade only in his late forties, the number of pipes he produced always remained limited. For this reason his signature is not among the names first mentioned when the Danish school comes up, but is better known as a name tracked by collectors gathering individual examples.

From Wood to Pipes

Børgart was born in Copenhagen in April 1944. He began his working life with a woodworking apprenticeship, followed by a long period in civil service: he served as a police officer in Copenhagen for twenty-five years. Pipemaking came into the picture during these years, purely as a leisure pursuit; his first buyers were his close circle, and these small sales were enough to cover the cost of materials.

According to the master's own account, in 1991 a Milanese businessman offered to buy his entire output; Børgart thereupon left civil service and moved into full-time pipemaking. There is no independent record of this event beyond his own statement. In later years he took part in the Danish Pipemakers craftsmen's group. Contact records for the master place his workshop around Dannemare on the island of Lolland. His death year is given in sources as 2009; this date has not been confirmed by an official record.