Stanwell Reg Era (c. 1950s-60s) Hand Made 55 Smooth 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.

Designed by Sixten Ivarsson in the late 1950s, Stanwell’s shape “55” incorporated a number of motifs that Ivarsson appears to have been quite interested in at the time, and several that would continue to be of interest as the decades went by. The first is that of the bent Dublin, though in a form that was far more common to Ivarsson’s early Stanwell designs than those that came later. Like the “06,” one of the very first Ivarsson-Stanwell collaborations (from 1951, in fact), as well as the late 1950s “50,” the 55 featured a distinctly supple and subtle curvature, as well as a slightly slender side profile, culminating in a tall, Dublin bowl. Like the 50, the 55 also had an elliptical bowl, not unlike an opera, albeit with a conical chamber. Opera shapes and variations were another interest of Ivarsson’s during this time, as evinced by the late 1950s “02,” as well as the 1960s “78” (which itself could be considered a 50/55 variation, but with a more squat, apple-like bowl). Based on surviving Stanwell catalogs, it appears the 55 disappeared by 1970, with the company’s flagship, Ivarsson-designed Dublin shapes moving in a very different direction by the mid-1970s (shapes 62-64, each a variation on the same theme, being the prime examples of this). This particular 55 will have been made between the later 1950s and the 1960s, and is also an example of the higher-end Hand Made line from that period, showcasing a real wealth of bird’s-eye on each of its broad flanks. All in all, it’s a very lovely, “old fashioned Danish” Dublin and, as far as Stanwell goes, certainly one you don’t see every day.

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

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.77 / 19.55mm

Bowl Depth: 1.73″ / 43.94mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 42g