Pipe brands § 4

Stanwell

History

In 1942 Poul Nielsen Stanwell started the production of pipes in Kyringe on the Danish Seeland. Because of war time, no briar wood nor rubber was available, so the pipes were produced from birch wood, fitted with surrogate rubber mouthpieces.

In the end of the 1940's, Poul Nielsen's real briar pipes became popular. From that moment onwards Stanwell used as a mark the S initial surmounted by a royal crown. Soon the factory employed about twenty labourers.

The most important designer from Stanwell is Sixten Ivarsson, who worked for the firm for 35 years. His freehands made in series caused a true revolution, especially in the United States and a large export was started. For Stanwell Ivarsson designed numerous other shapes that became most successful, some of them being sold in quantities of over a million copies.

In 1965 the factory moved to Borup near Copenhagen and employed over forty people. Stanwell's second brand is Danske Club. Shortly before the death of Poul Stanwell in 1982 the ownership of the company was sold to a group of which Dunhill takes part as well. In the design and marketing however, little changed. At present Stanwell is the largest Danish company with a share of 35 procent in the Danish pipe export.

In recent times the firm took over both Larsen and Jensen, who already worked together for some years. To support the Stanwell mark, pipes with the other marks are no longer produced.

Characteristics

The classical line of Stanwell always has been an important part of the assortment. A broad and deep going range of over fifty traditional shapes, often with a small characteristic typical for Stanwell, form the base of the choice. The pipes are sold as sand blasts, the so-called royal mat version and the shiny polished finish.

It was Sixten Ivarsson that introduced the famous series of freehands. With these pipes the shape of the pipe is no longer directly related to the carving machines, but gives the impression of being fully made by hand. Often the rough surface of the briar root is still visible along the bowl opening of the pipe, a characteristic in France named fleuron, in English often called roughtop. These machine made freehands soon make the company renown in the United States. Only the Charatan company was producer of freehands until that moment but these pipes were a lot more expensive. Freehands finally became the base of the famous Danish pipe shapes. Also other pipe makers produced designs for Stanwell, such as Anne Julie, Jess Chonowitsch en Tom Etlang.

The production takes place with a maximum of machines that also is the base for the standard sized shapes. Stanwell therefore is able to offer extremely price worth pipes is classical shapes as well as the free Danish design line. Influenced by the economy from the year 2000 onwards, however, a reduction of shapes took place.

The Smokiana pipeshop selection

For the Stanwell smoker Smokiana pipeshop in Amsterdam offers a choice of at least 200 shapes and finishings. Next to the classical line, also the designs typical for the factory are represented. Among Dutch smokers Stanwell is especially popular because of their extend variation in shapes, but also because of their reasonable prices. The freehands by Stanwell are an attractive alternative for those smokers who are in for something different. They are characterised not only by their special shape line but they are also extremely typical in comparison to those of other factories. The prices vary from 55 Euro for the common styles till over 200 Euro for the more exquisite serie products.