Stanwell (c.1980s-1990s) Smooth Dublin 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.

This Stanwell looks to be one such pipe. It is a gorgeous Dublin rendition—of that, there can be no doubt—and it looks to be loosely based on either the shape “62” or “63,” both of which were designed by Sixten Ivarsson in the 1970s. One can also see, however, that whoever carved this one took some liberties with the proportions, especially those of the shank, so as to accommodate the proportions of the bamboo itself. The gold, crowned “S” stem logo would furthermore indicate it as being mid-1980s to early-1990s, as that was a period when—if I remember correctly—Stanwell used a slogan to the effect of “you will recognize us by our golden ‘S’.”

The condition is great. Some minor rim darkening.

Details:

Length: 5.7″ / 144.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.83 / 21.08mm

Bowl Depth: 1.61″ / 40.89mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g