Stanwell Legend 217 Smooth 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.

Speaking of Jess Chonowitsch, this Stanwell happens to have been designed by the Danish master himself. It seems fitting, then, that this is part of the ‘Legend’ series. While Stanwell series are notoriously difficult to decipher, the Legend series appears to have first been introduced in the 1980s, with all of its models being shapes designed by – you guessed it – legendary Danish carvers. The series also appears to have been fairly high-grade, given the excellent grain patterns (the straight grain on this one is excellent) and light stain worn by Legend pipes. This pipe is from a more recent iteration of the series; using the dating guide written for us (which can be found on the main MBSD hub), it looks to have been made between 1998 and 2009, with the most important takeaway being that the pipe was manufactured at the Borup campus in Denmark.

This pipe came to us via our trade-in program, and by a stroke of luck, is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. There’s a very small nick on the bottom left of the shank, but it’s entirely superficial and barely noticeable.

 

Details:

Length: 5.2″ / 132.0mm

Bowl Width: 0.81 / 20.5mm

Bowl Depth: 1.55″ / 39.3mm

Weight: 2.1oz / 60g