Stanwell Pre-2010 Vario Partially Sandblasted 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.

Stanwell’s Vario line first appeared around the 1980s, if memory serves, and was distinguished by a previously unexplored theme among Stanwell’s designs: mixed finishes. As gestured to by the name, Vario pipes were variously smooth polished and sandblasted, before being given a two-tone finish that was similarly divided between the different sections of the bowl. Though I wasn’t able to read a shape number on this one, it looks to be a “63,” which was one of several variations on a theme designed by Sixten Ivarsson in the 1970s. As far as Stanwell’s design history goes, there have been certain shapes that were especially well received by the company and its customers. With Sixten Ivarssson’s designs, this was even more so, hence why there were, at different times, so many Neferiti, Peewit, and pear renditions on Stanwell’s catalogs. Ivarsson’s 1970s Dublins were much the same, leading to the creation of the “62,” “63,” “63M,” and “64,” each being similar, but slightly different, takes on a broad, quarter-bent, “Danish” Dublin. This one will have been made around the later 1990s-2000s, prior to 2010, back when Stanwell pipes were made in the company’s historic factory in Borup, Denmark.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.

Details:

Length: 6.2″ / 157.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.79 / 23.36mm

Bowl Depth: 1.53″ / 38.86mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 54g