Stanwell (1998-2009) Brazilia Smooth Poker with Horn and Brass (Estate)

Stanwell is one of Denmark’s most celebrated and enduring pipe companies, having been founded by Poul Nielsen shortly after the second world war. Over the last six decades, Stanwell has established itself as both a leader in innovative Danish design and for producing well-priced pipes with precision construction and engineering. Many of its designs were created for the company by iconic pipe-makers in the Scandinavian scene, such as Sixten Ivarsson, Anne Julie, Jess Chonowitsch, and Tom Eltang.

The poker is a shape that is surprisingly uncommon within Stanwell’s portfolio, especially considered as a whole. Though the company started out with a view to making classically “English” pipes, it is hard to find a poker or cherrywood rendition in surviving catalogs from Stanwell’s first decades, and it is only relatively recently that such pipes (specifically, the shape “207” and its Featherweight counterpart, the “245”) have been fixtures in the company’s output. In terms of older Stanwell pokers, aside from the occasional semi-freehand, there is only one shape that comes to mind, at least when it comes to the poker’s traditional form (I wouldn’t call the “87” a “true poker,” for example). That shape is the “68,” a rather trim and lightweight design that straddles the line between a poker and a cherrywood in much the same way that Anglo-French approaches often do.

This particular poker comes from Stanwell’s now-discontinued Brazilia line, which was originally distinguished by its horn ferrules, before switching to horn and brass shank extensions around the 1980s. As this one is fitted with an acrylic stem and is stamped as having been made in Denmark, it’ll be a late 1990s to 2000s make, from back when Stanwell pipes were manufactured in the famous Borup factory, in Denmark. Though it isn’t stamped with a shape code, I think it’s the “207,” given its larger proportions.

The condition is very good. A couple of spots of slight inner rim charring, a few slight scratches on the bowl, and some slight weathering of the pipe’s horn shank extension (though quite typical of horn accents).

Details:

Length: 6.4″ / 162.5mm

Bowl Width: 0.82 / 20.82mm

Bowl Depth: 1.70″ / 43.18mm

Weight: 2.1oz / 60g