Stanwell c.1960s Hand Made Bamboo Sandblasted Nefertiti Dublin 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.

From the perspective of Stanwell pipe history, and indeed of post-war pipe history in general, this is an interesting piece. As such, describing that significance may well take longer than usual, as there are many layers to it. This pipe connects pioneering Scandinavian artisans, such as its designer Sixten Ivarsson; one of the earliest pipe designs representative of that style, the “Nefertiti” Dublin; trends in international pipe design after World War 2, including the use of bamboo shank extensions; the rise Stanwell, in part by its capitalization on emerging design trends; and certain pipes through which Stanwell was propelled to prominence, yet which are exceptionally scarce today, for one reason or another. It is also a pipe that, on a more personal level, is a slightly maddening “exception to the rule” when it comes to formulating a generalizable approach to dating Stanwell pipes to a defined period of manufacture, though we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

This Stanwell is what has come to be known as a “Nefertiti.” It’s a tall Dublin shape with a pronounced “foot,” not entirely unlike the midcentury Charatan 371, though decidedly slimmer and more pointed in its posture, also not entirely unlike a skater. Sixten Ivarsson designed a number of similar shapes for Stanwell during the first decade of their partnership, including the 01, the 38, and the 43, all of which were designed prior to 1960. The main differences between the three had to do with curvature, proportions, and stem design, though the 01 was the closest to what Ivarsson had termed the “Nefertiti,” in part because it had a sloped rim perpendicular to the shank. In any case, in the decades since, all three have become representative of a “Nefertiti” genre carried on by artisans across the globe, with renditions from figures as diverse as J. Alan, Chris Asteriou, and Satoshi Naito. In Stanwell’s case, these shapes were popular enough to warrant multiple variations in its ascent to the big leagues of Danish pipe makers, though all three appear to have been culled from production by 1970, according to existing catalogs.

Bamboo variants of the shape 43 and others were produced as early as the late 1950s, falling under the general label of “Bamboos.” The material was, of course, incredibly popular in the post-war years, and was favored by Sixten Ivarsson in his earliest pipes, in part because it was an excellent way to work around a global briar shortage. These bamboo-shanked pipes proved very popular, and Stanwell has produced them more or less consistently ever since, with designs changing based on whatever was in the standard catalog at the time (though with a little more flexibility in the 1970s and 80s). Shape 43 Bamboos will have been produced between the 1950s and approximately 1970, when the 43 was still in the standard Stanwell catalog. Even with the 43 being in the Stanwell catalog for quite a few years, very few exist on the estates market today, with this being even more the case for Bamboo versions. One can see from looking at an 01, a 38, or a 43 that these are deceptively complex shapes, with narrow “stepped” stems that alone will have required a great deal of precision and care to cut, possibly contributing to their significant scarcity in the contemporary.

As for dating, this will be, approximately, a late 1950s to 1970 piece. One thing notably absent from this pipe, despite its presence on almost all other Stanwells manufactured during this period is a trademark registration number, the famous “REGD. 969-48” stamp that referred to Stanwell’s successful trademark registration in 1948. As is discussed in the MBSD Pipes guide to dating Stanwell pipes, this number was stamped on almost all Stanwell pipes manufactured between 1948 and approximately 1980, though there are two important exceptions to this rule. The first exception is Stanwell’s Featherweights from this period, which did not feature such a stamp (possibly due to how narrow their shanks were); the second exception is the Bamboos, where early examples seem to have been similarly exempt wholesale (possibly due to the narrowness of the bamboo), before this exemption was lifted around the 1970s (when Stanwell pipes were typically less slender, and its Bamboo line was more flexible in terms of shaping).

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. There is some slight oxidation on the pipe’s vulcanite stem, though with pipes like these we typically prefer to leave refurbishment to the buyer’s preference.

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.73 / 18.54mm

Bowl Depth: 1.63″ / 41.40mm

Weight: 0.8oz / 24g