Stanwell (c.1950s-60s) Hand Made 85 Smooth Stack Egg Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

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 “85” was one of a number of Stanwell shapes designed by Sixten Ivarsson during the 1950s and 1960s that could be referred to as “Peewit-adjacent.” While the “30,””30H,” “30L,” “35,” and “39” shapes were more clear-cut examples of Peewit renditions, other shapes, like the “48,” the “54,” the “59,” the “82,” and, indeed, the “84” featured hallmarks of the design while still being substantially different (though a case could still be made that a sizeable portion of the shapes he designed for Stanwell during this period were either Peewit variations, Nefertiti variations, or both). In the case of the “84,” the difference came down to bowl height. One might think of it as a Peewit whose bowl has been “stretched” vertically, with the result being a tall, slightly “footed,” stacked egg, to which was attached a long, slender shank and mouthpiece. One can also see a strong similarity to the Dan Shape variations of Pibe-Dan (later Pipe Dan), along with certain designs of H. Dan-Christensen’s close collaborator, Gert Holbek, as the Stanwell “84” was not only remarkably tall and rather narrow in chamber, but also exceedingly lightweight, with a bowl that would remain upright while hanging from one’s jaw. This particular pipe is an example of the higher-end Stanwell Hand Made line, no doubt due to the intensive labor needed to craft it. As for dating, the shape appears in surviving catalogs from the late 1950s onward but is not present in the 1970 catalog or after, thus we can reasonably assume this to be a 1950s-1960s make.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. Some slight scratches on the bowl, though nothing major.

Details:

Length: 6.2″ / 157.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.68 / 17.27mm

Bowl Depth: 1.93″ / 49.02mm

Weight: 1.1oz / 32g