Stanwell (c.1980s-1990s) Partially Sandblasted Billiard w/ Bamboo 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 has a long and interesting history with bamboo. Like Dunhill and Kaywoodie, Stanwell began using pieces of bamboo as shank extensions not long after the Second World War, during a time when briar was scarce and bamboo was found to be a great material for saving on the amount of briar used per pipe. Stanwell’s 1950s “Bamboos” incorporated the material into a number of designs and, as one might imagine, it did so in a distinctly “Danish” (or, rather, “Scandinavian”) way, as this was the same decade that the company forged a partnership with Sixten Ivarsson, who designed many Stanwell shapes in that period. Similarly to its European and American counterparts, Stanwell continued to use bamboo long after the post-war briar shortage waned, as pipe smokers were particularly receptive to bamboo-shanked compositions. As Stanwell’s catalog shapes transformed in the succeeding decades, so too did its Bamboo offerings; the narrow, stacked Bamboo Nefertiti renditions of the 1950s gave way to the more plump, Danish apple and egg Bamboos of the 1960s, and so on. In the 1980s and 1990s, however, Stanwell’s Bamboo line was given a slightly more “freeform” touch. In the past, Stanwell’s Bamboo models had been based on pre-existing catalog shapes, albeit with some flexibility to accommodate that addition, and while the Bamboos of the 1980s and early 1990s did not abandon catalog shapes entirely, their manufacture involved significantly more freedom on the part of person making them. This way, the person carving Stanwell’s Bamboo pipes could make the best use possible of a given briar block and bamboo rod, rather than being limited to merely reproducing as close as possible its corresponding catalog shape. I have read that this took place in the 1970s and that it was a “Mr Larsen” that made these more unique Bamboo pipes. Some claim that this Larsen fellow must have been Jørgen Larsen, who also made pipes for Peter Stokkebye, as well as under the Jørgen L moniker. I have wondered, however, if this is a mistake, as Jørgen Larsen worked for Stanwell during the 1960s, not the 1970s. Furthermore, if one reads the autobiographical remarks of the Danish artisan Jørn Larsen, one finds him recounting how he made “semi-manufactured articles for Stanwell”, which included fittings of “silver rings, bamboo and horn.” By Jørn Larsen’s account, however, this took place after an informal apprenticeship of sorts with Jess Chonowitsch in the mid-1980s. Thus, my own theory is that the more unique, slightly freeform Stanwell Bamboos were of Jørn Larsen’s making in the 1980s and possibly early 1990s.

Though this one is a very traditional billiard, one whose shaping mirrors both the early (1950s) and more recent (2010 onward) Stanwell Bamboos, there are some indications that it would fall within the proposed Larsen period mentioned above. First, it features the thick, brass crowned “S” inlay on the mouthpiece, which was used during the 1980s and early 1990s and was indeed mentioned in Stanwell’s marketing materials as a sign of quality. The second is that the mouthpiece and spacers at either end of the bamboo itself are ebonite. Consequently I would presume this to be a circa 1980s make (early 1990s at the latest) and, as such, may well be one of Jørn’s. It’s well made in either case, with a meticulously applied, ring grain sandblast whose cragginess testifies to an expert touch.

The condition is very good. Some rim darkening and residual oxidation on the pipe’s vulcanite sections.

Details:

Length: 5.7″ / 144.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.81 / 20.57mm

Bowl Depth: 1.53″ / 38.86mm

Weight: 1.2oz / 36g