Stanwell (c.1980s) Zebrano 30 Sandblasted Peewit 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.

Unlike the Buffalo line, Stanwell’s Zebrano refers not to the animal zebra but to a species of hardwood commonly known as “zebrawood.” This wood has been favored by Danish artisans for decades, with Stanwell contributing their own pipes to this minor tradition by way of pipes with zebrawood shank extensions. Here we find a crisply sandblasted Zebrano rendition of the shape “30,” a rather interesting one in Stanwell’s historical catalog. The “30” is no longer in production, but while it was, the shape was one of the most famous in Stanwell’s output, and in Scandinavian pipes more generally. After all, it is a “Peewit” variation, a shape originally designed by Sixten Ivarsson in the 1950s (some people say 1960s, though I’m fairly certain they’re not correct on that), and which was licensed to Stanwell in several variations between the 1950s and 1970s. The shape is distinguished by its long, slender figure and by a bowl that was based on a lapwing egg, though which also somewhat resembles an acorn shape from early French briars. By the 1970s, most of Stanwell’s Ivarsson-designed Peewit and Peewit-adjacent shapes had been discontinued, but the “30” persisted for much longer, being discontinued instead around the turn of the new millennium. What’s quite curious about the “30,” however, is that it looked quite different during the 1950s and 1960s compared to the 1970s onward. Ordinarily, one could put this down to Stanwell simply switching out the shape “30” for a new one, as the company had a habit for reusing shape codes for new shapes once the shapes they previously designated had been discontinued. But this normally meant switching out the shape for something completely different, such as the “14,” which went from a canted Rhodesian to a traditional billiard, or the “25,” which went from a cutty, to a Dublin, and finally to an apple. When the new “30” debuted in the 1970s (seen here), it was still pretty much a Peewit, but one that was a little shorter and more plump than it had been in the decades prior. In any case, the 1970s Peewit was liked enough to stick around in Stanwell’s catalog while so many other shapes did not, and as a certified Peewit enthusiast, it’s one that I also am very fond of. This one I would guess to be from the early 1980s. There’s no trademark registration number in the nomenclature and while the stem logo has also rubbed off, the thin white crowned “S” used during the early 1980s was much easier to accidentally rub off than the foil ones that came later.

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

Details:

Length: 6.4″ / 162.5mm

Bowl Width: 0.82 / 20.82mm

Bowl Depth: 1.49″ / 37.84mm

Weight: 1.3oz / 38g