Stanwell's story begins at the time of World War II. And as is so often the case, it is a story that begins because something is not available, namely briar wood. Or the finished product - the coveted English pipes. Denmark has always been a country of pipe smokers. Mainly because the legislature carefully distinguished between the taxation of tobacco products. Pipe tobacco had a significantly lower tax rate than cigarette tobacco or cigarettes, which is why a large part of the population preferred to smoke a pipe. It was just a lot cheaper. When the pipes are running out in such an environment, you have to be inventive, and the young Poul Nielsen, at that time manager of a factory for various wood products, resorted to birch wood without further ado. First and foremost because it was available almost indefinitely. The „Kyringe" pipes (the name of the factory) were based on English models and usually had billiards, bent or bulldog shapes.

A Big Name: Sixten Ivarsson

At the same time Sixten Ivarsson set out to learn how to repair pipes. At that time, pipe repair was basically the only way to still smoke if your own pipe was damaged. Buying a new pipe was almost impossible or very expensive. So Sixten Ivarsson went to have his pipe repaired in Suhr's pipe workshop. Unfortunately at this point the workshop was paralyzed due to illness of the pipe maker, but the owner offered him to repair the pipe himself on the existing machines. Sixten did this so well that from then on he worked as a pipe repairer - and no longer as a debt collector.

Finally Briar!

When it became possible to import briar wood again after the war, he started making pipes himself. And since the coveted English pipes were still not reliably available, his Danish compatriots resorted to local goods for the first time, even if they were much more expensive than the still common birch wood pipes.

A Dreamteam

And this is where the collaboration with Stanwell begins, which has proven to be very, very fruitful. Sixten Ivarsson showed Poul Nielsen what really counts when it comes to good pipes made of briar wood, and modified classic pipes. The models offered from then on were given the typical "Danish style", which also gained international popularity in the furniture industry at the end of the 50s and beginning of the 60s. And because his Danish compatriots still longed for English pipes, Poul Nielsen quickly named his pipes after a small English town in County Surrey, namely Stanwell.

The rise

From then on, business went up steeply, and exports also flourished. To be closer to Sixten Ivarsson's workshop, the factory was relocated to Borup in 1969. New ideas were tried out and implemented, and sometimes improvised. For example, pipes with bamboo stems are due to the consideration of what can be done with pipe bowls that break on the pipe shank during production.

New big names

The now also very successful Sixten Ivarsson attracted new pipe makers, and this environment rubbed off on Stanwell. Numerous pipe models are designed by other "Giants" such as Jess Chonowitsch, Tom Eltang, Anne Julie or Poul Winslow. Stanwell has never left this path; there has always been a fruitful exchange with Danish pipe makers.

Stanwell on TV

In the meantime Stanwell had grown into one of the largest pipe manufacturers in the world. In Germany alone, over 120,000 Stanwell pipes were sold annually in the mid-1990s. As I said, that was only the German market, but this market has always been the most important for Stanwell. Stanwell had built an incredibly good reputation here. For many pipe smokers, Stanwell had become synonymous with pipe smoking - probably also due to the "Fire, Pipe, Stanwell" commercial with Loriot (a famous German comedian) clips that were on television at the time.

Stanwell Tobacco

The Stanwell tobacco was originally a German product from the Brinkmann tobacco factory in Bremen. These tobaccos had only the name in common with the pipes themselves. But for the Danish tobacco style, and to make it popular, this identity of names was of course very helpful. Today, of course, Stanwell tobaccos come from Assens in Denmark.

Closing Doors in Denmark

Since the closure of the Borup factory, Stanwell pipes have been made in Italy. The popular classics are still there. And even today we can recommend every pipe smoker to try a Stanwell "Relief" with the shape number 11 or a "Royal Guard" in the shape 95.

The STG

Stanwell is a brand that is now part of the Scandinavian Tobacco Group, and Stanwell tobaccos are still the quintessential Danish smoking culture. Tobacco that are mild, taste good, and smell good.