Stanwell Prestige Smooth Freehand 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.

This pipe is quite peculiar, but in a very good way. Even as a big fan of of Stanwell pipes, and as someone who has handled quite a few of them in my time, I haven’t seen the Prestige line in person before. I haven’t seen many examples of them on the web, either. That makes this pipe quite mysterious, not to mention rare. As I have seen plenty of Stanwell freehands that were not stamped ‘Prestige’ I can only imagine that this line designated a higher grading than the other freehands Stanwell produced, such as the De Luxe line.

Stanwell started producing what we call freehand pipes in the 1960s, and continued producing them intermittently until the early 2000s. This freehand is from Stanwell’s Registration Era (1948-1970), meaning it was made some time before 1970. During this period, Stanwell’s freehands were made by Poul Hansen, a master pipe maker who had apprenticed under Sixten Ivarsson before joining Stanwell’s production team. Hansen’s skill shines very clearly through this one. Carved with a noticeable intention to preserve the briar’s natural straight grain, this Prestige is a paragon of the Danish freehand movement. It’s a very large pipe, but one that has still managed to find the perfect combination of form (including a bare plateau rim) and function, sitting very well in the hand despite its size.

Details:

Length: 8.2″

Bowl Width: 22.6mm

Bowl Depth: 2.4″

Weight: 3.8oz / 108g

Stem: New Acrylic Stem