Kriswill Bernadotte Handmade Denmark Sandblast Dublin Pot Vulcanite Estate Pipe

KRISWILL over BERNADOTTE over HANDMADE DENMARK, pressed in block capitals into a smooth panel left in the blast: this is a Kriswill Bernadotte, a straight sandblasted Dublin pot with an oval shank and a vulcanite saddle stem that ends in a fishtail mouthpiece.

It is pre-smoked, in very good condition, and it has no filter. All three stamp lines are legible, KRISWILL a little worn, and a second smooth panel next to the stem carries the number 1846 clearly.

Kriswill began with a ship's engineer. Karl Robert Kris, who sailed for A.P. Moller, brought briar home with him, and in 1947, at the age of 47, he set up as a pipe maker at Haderslevvej 115 in Kolding; his first pipes went to the home market under the name Rocky. In the mid-1950s he moved into a new factory on the Sdr. Ring road in Kolding and stamped the pipes KRISWELL, until Stanwell objected that the name was too close to its own, and the two sides settled on KRISWILL. (The founding is worded differently from one account to another: about 1955, the late 1950s, or 1947 for the maker himself.) Kriswill's stem logo is a compass rose, a nod to his years at sea.

The firm hired designers. After a local architect came Sigvard Bernadotte, a Swedish prince and the brother of Queen Ingrid of Denmark, who worked with Acton Bjorn on the series sold as Bernadotte designed, the series named on this shank. At its peak in the mid-1960s Kriswill had 40 employees. Karl Robert Kris died in 1966, his son Jens ran the company until 1975, and soon after he left the company failed; Erik Nording took the machines. Later pipes carried the Kriswill name for others: for a while in the 1980s Iberica de Pipas made them in Spain, and the rights to the name passed to Dan Pipe.

THE MARKS

- KRISWILL / BERNADOTTE / HANDMADE DENMARK stamped on the shank, in block capitals
- 1846 stamped on the shank next to the stem

Other recorded Kriswill stamps carry a number in the same way, such as KRISWILL 1485 SUPREME and KRISWILL 449 SAGA; what this one stands for is not given.

A Dublin bowl widens gently from the heel toward the rim, and this one stands tall with a flat rim; here the bowl is 50 mm high and 35 mm wide, with a chamber 45 mm deep. The oval shank carries a black saddle stem with a slim bit that ends in a fishtail mouthpiece.

The finish is a sandblast: the surface was blasted so that the softer wood wears away and the harder growth rings stand up as a ridged, rugged texture, which covers the bowl and the shank here. Only the two stamp panels were left smooth.

For dating, one source, pipephil, gives a rule: Kriswill stamped its name in script before 1970 and in block letters from 1970. The block letters on this shank fit the later period. No end year is claimed, because a later Kriswill line was also made by Danish carvers.

Condition: pre-smoked, in very good condition.

THE MEASUREMENTS

- Length: 133 mm (5.24 in)
- Bowl height: 50 mm (1.97 in)
- Bowl width: 35 mm (1.38 in)
- Chamber diameter: 20 mm (0.79 in)
- Chamber depth: 45 mm (1.77 in)
- Weight: 44 g (1.55 oz)

Ships from the Faridunhill archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe. SKU: 488