Stanwell Reg Era (c.1960s-70s) Hand Made 86 Smooth Dublin Estate Briar Pipe, Danish Estates

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.

Sixten Ivarsson created a number of novel, distinctly squat shapes in the 1960s and ’70s, and several of these shapes were licensed to Stanwell, becoming the latter’s catalog shapes. Some of these shapes were closer to the traditional diplomat, such as the “91” and “92″ “Ukulele” designs; some were nearer to the tomatoes and authors, like the “90”; and others still were closer to the Dublin, like this one, the “86,” and its even wider sibling, the “95.” Each was significant in its own way, and in this instance, shapes like the “86” were trailblazing examples of what we today often simply call a “Danish Dublin”—you can practically see the pipes of Jess Chonowotisch (an early Ivarsson apprentice), Hansen & Noltensmeier’s S. Bang, and Nanna Ivarsson (Sixten’s granddaughter), for example, if you look at this one hard enough. It’s no wonder that it remained in Stanwell’s catalog for far longer than most other shapes, given its equal measure of beautiful and historical significance.

This one is a “Reg era” example of the “86,” i.e., a pipe made back when Stanwell included the make’s trademark registration number within each pipe’s nomenclature. That practice ended around 1980, and as the “86” first debuted in the 1960s, the pipe seen here will have been made at some point in the 1960s or 1970s. As it belongs to Stanwell’s Hand Made line, it’s one of the make’s higher end pipes from that period, with excellent grain and a very simple, light finish on the bowl.

The condition is very good. The pipe appears lightly smoked at most. There are some handling marks and there’s some slight fading of the nomenclature on the shank, though the latter is still clearly legible.

Details:

Length: 5.2″ / 132.0mm

Bowl Width: 0.83 / 21.08mm

Bowl Depth: 1.13″ / 28.70mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 40g