Stanwell Mat 64 Bent Dublin Plateau Rim Matte Finish Danish Estate Pipe

A plateau rim, a forward-leaning bowl and the word Mat in script on the shank: this is a Stanwell shape 64, stamped STANWELL, MADE IN DENMARK and Mat, a bent freehand-style Dublin in smooth briar with the crowned S on its vulcanite saddle stem.

The stem is a bent vulcanite saddle with a fishtail mouthpiece, and there is no filter. In the stamp, Mat and the shape number 64 read clearly; STANWELL is worn and soft, and in the second line MADE IN is legible while DENMARK is blurred.

Stanwell's story begins in Denmark during the Second World War. Poul Nielsen set up pipe production in 1942, and the first pipes were made of beech; the firm's own catalogue of about 1982 recalls that six Danish factories made beech pipes in those years and that five of them closed once the war was over. In 1948 the name Stanwell was registered as a trademark, number 969-48.

New machines arrived in 1952, together with exports to Europe and the United States. Production later moved to a modern factory in Borup - in 1965 according to the maker's catalogue, in 1969 according to other sources - and around 1982 Stanwell described itself as the maker of about 35 percent of Denmark's pipe exports, sold in some 40 countries. The Danish years ended at the end of 2009; from 2010 Stanwell pipes have been made by Barontini in Italy, except for limited editions.

THE MARKS

- STANWELL / MADE IN DENMARK / Mat (in script) stamped on the shank
- 64 stamped on the shank
- Crowned S on the stem

The shape-number list compiled by Bas Stevens and McNally gives two pipes under 64: a freehand with a plateau top and a saddle mouthpiece, by Sixten Ivarsson, and a medium bent billiard. This pipe is the first kind. It is a bent Dublin in freehand style: the bowl leans forward and widens toward the top, where the rim is left as natural plateau - the rough, textured outer surface of the briar block, kept on top of the bowl instead of being cut smooth. The vulcanite saddle stem follows the bend down toward the smoker, and the fishtail at the bit spreads the draw across the tongue rather than sending it in a single jet.

Mat means matte. Where many pipes carry a glossy varnish, a Mat finish is a smooth stain with a low shine, meant to show the grain. On this bowl the photographs show long, flowing lines of grain running up the sides, and the plateau rim is the only rough surface on the pipe.

For dating, MADE IN DENMARK places the pipe in Stanwell's Danish production, which ended in 2009. No year is known for the Mat stamp, so no narrower date is given.

Condition: pre-smoked, in very good condition. Please see the photographs.

THE MEASUREMENTS

- Length: 141 mm (5.55 in)
- Bowl height: 52 mm (2.05 in)
- Bowl width: 44 mm (1.73 in)
- Chamber diameter: 20 mm (0.79 in)
- Chamber depth: 44 mm (1.73 in)
- Weight: 58 g (2.05 oz)

Ships from the Faridunhill archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe. SKU: 034