Stanwell 1240 Reg Era Sandblasted Pot 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.

This Stanwell shape is one that I’ve always found a little confusing – not because of the shape, but because of the shape code. I contacted a friend of mine who knows a good deal about Stanwells and asked him why this Stanwell pipe had a four-digit shape code, when every other Stanwell pipe I’d seen had either a two-digit or three-digit code. Here’s what he said:

“I don’t know. I wish I did. The only other Stanwells with four-digit codes were their early Featherweights, but this shape was not part of those. You can find it in the 1960s catalogs and it’s known to be a Sixten Ivarsson design, but why it got that code is beyond me.”

Well, the Sixten Ivarsson connection is interesting at least. And the pipe is a real looker: semi-traditional, but nonetheless distinct. Plus, the sandblast is wonderfully crisp and craggy. The stamping puts this one’s date as somewhere between the early 1960s and around 1979.

The condition is excellent. There’s some rim darkening, but nothing major.

 

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.82 / 20.82mm

Bowl Depth: 1.36″ / 34.54mm

Weight: 1.2oz / 36g