Stanwell c.1960s 89R Hand Made Sandblasted Pot Estate Briar Pipe, Danish Estates

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.

Stanwell is not especially well known for its “big” pipes. Granted, there are some Stanwell pipes that are quite hefty, owing to their bombastic, “Danish” stylings, but there are very few instances where the company has specifically marketed oversized pipes. However, during the 1960s there was a fairly substantial range of shapes in Stanwell’s catalog referred to as “Giants.” As this was the 1960s, at a time when Stanwell was still manufacturing many a sight and slender shape (thanks in no small part to its collaborations with Sixten Ivarsson), these Giants were hardly magnums, but they were still larger than the average Stanwell.

Giants were exclusively available in the higher-end Hand Made line, presumably due to their being more labor intensive, and they were often identified by the “R” designation, such as in the case of the 11R, the 83R, and, as seen here, the 89R. I would describe the 89R in similar terms to how I’ve described the 83R, which was also a pot in the Giants range. Their closest analogs were something like the Comoy’s Extraordinaire, or the GBD Conquest, Collector, and Colossus models, being larger than average without being huge, and being sizeable renditions of relatively traditional shapes. One main difference between the 83R and 89R, however, is the latter’s inclusion of a very Danish, very “Stanwell” long, stepped, faux army mount mouthpiece.

As for dating, the Giants range first appeared in the 1960s and had vanished from catalogs by at least the mid-1970s, thus I would estimate this 89R to be a 1960s make. Given that the Giants were manufactured for such a short amount of time, they don’t come around too often, especially the more “Danish” shapes, like this one.

The condition is good. Some rim darkening and finish fading.

Details:

Length: 6.6″ / 167.6mm

Bowl Width: 1.00 / 25.4mm

Bowl Depth: 1.32″ / 33.52mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 54g