Stanwell Reg Era Hand Made 30H Smooth Peewit Churchwarden 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.

Stanwell’s shape 30H is a rare and interesting one—in other words, exactly the kind of Stanwell I like to talk about. It is an old shape, having been in production between approximately the late 1950s through to the early to mid-1970s, and it reflects a certain moment in Stanwell’s history, during its first full embrace of “Danish style” pipes. Those with a keen eye for Danish pipes will note that it resembles a [rather unusual] rendition of a very famous shape, that being the “Peewit,” created by Swedish-born Sixten Ivarsson. That’s because it is one: it is one of numerous Ivarssonian Peewit renditions featured in Stanwell’s catalogs in the 20th century, and one of three shape “30” variations alone featured in surviving catalogs from between the late 1950s and 1970. These variations were the shape “30” itself, a slightly tall egg, with a pronounced foot, a sharply rising shank, and a slender, stepped mouthpiece, which was arguably the most famous of Ivarsson’s approaches to the form; the shape “30L,” which was a shape “30” bowl, but with a long, churchwarden-style, tapered mouthpiece; and there was the shape “30H,” which also featured a long, churchwarden-style mouthpiece, but which was longer than the mouthpiece of the shape “30” and shorter than the “30L” (I have wondered if the “H” stood for “half,” or the Danish “halv, though I have not found anything conclusive).

So, while I have categorized this as a “Churchwarden” for the sake of simplicity and to appease our algorithmic overlords, at around 8 inches in length it is perhaps more accurately described as a demiwarden, at least in English.

This particular 30H comes from Stanwell’s higher-end Hand Made line, though catalogs from the time indicate that the 30H was only available as such, presumably due to it being more labor-intensive than many of Stanwell’s other shapes. As a consequence, it is beautifully cut, with excellent grain, especially of the bird’s-eye variety. As regards dating, as stated previously, I would estimate this one to be a 1960s make, give or take a couple of years at either end.

The condition is very good. Some inner rim darkening and minor handling marks.

Details:

Length: 8″ / 203.2mm

Bowl Width: 0.82 / 20.82mm

Bowl Depth: 1.60″ / 40.64mm

Weight: 1.0oz / 30g