Stanwell (c.1980s) 12 Sandblasted Billiard (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.

While the notion may run contrary to how we understand Stanwell pipes today, the make’s shape “12” billiard is, in fact, one of the oldest shapes Stanwell ever made. Even more strange is that it has had one of the longest lifespans of any Stanwell shape, having been in production for over 70 years. To understand how this happened, we have to go back in time to Stanwell’s origins. While Stanwell is known today for its eccentric Danish designs, the company began with the intention of crafting pipes modeled on the classics of English briars—which was part of the reason Poul Nielsen opted for the “Stanwell” name in the first place. The company was manufacturing traditional billiards under the Kyringe name all the way back in the 1940s, before the switch to Stanwell was formalized. Catalogs in the early 1950s, for example, featured dozens of billiard renditions, alongside the more “Danish” Hand Cut shapes. By the end of the 1950s, most of Stanwell’s more traditional shapes—what the company originally called the Standard series—had been culled, though other traditional shapes maintained a presence throughout the decades, and indeed some survived all the way into the contemporary. The shape “12,” however, was one of the many billiards featured in the early 1950s catalogs and, last I checked, is still in production today, even while most of Stanwell’s “Danish” shapes are not.

This one is a bit different to the “12” renditions of the contemporary, however, as its thin, white “S” stem logo (and lack of a trademark registration number) would place it somewhere around the 1980s, back during a time when Stanwell pipes were made at the famous Borup factory, in Denmark, and were fitted with vulcanite mouthpieces as standard. I’m not sure if Stanwell currently sandblasts their pipes with such ferocity these days, either, though that may be subjective. Looks fantastic to me, anyhow.

The condition is good. Minor inner rim charring, slight finish fading, and minor oxidation on the mouthpiece.

Details:

Length: 6.1″ / 154.9mm

Bowl Width: 0.82 / 20.82mm

Bowl Depth: 1.77″ / 44.95mm

Weight: 1.3oz / 38g