Stanwell

Stanwell is a pipe brand founded in Copenhagen in 1942, known for bringing Danish pipe design to factory-scale production. By pairing mass production with shapes drawn by the country's most respected masters, the brand is recognized as the first factory that comes to mind when the Danish school is mentioned. Today it continues to exist under the umbrella of Scandinavian Tobacco Group.

Founding and the War Years

The brand's founder, Poul Nielsen, began making pipes in Copenhagen in the middle of the Second World War, in 1942. Nielsen was at the time running a woodworking company called Kyringe, and the first pipes were released under this same name. Under wartime conditions, neither English pipes nor briar, the basic raw material for pipe making, could be imported; for this reason the first Stanwell pipes were made of beech. Once the war ended and briar became obtainable again, Nielsen began importing his own raw material and entered into competition with the English manufacturers who dominated the market of the period. In 1948, the brand was given the name "Stanwell," chosen because it sounded far more English than "Nielsen"; for the same reason, a horse-drawn carriage was chosen as the brand emblem. It is said that in later years Nielsen even changed his own surname to Stanwell.