Stanwell Jubilaeum Smooth 169 Billiard, 1992 (50th Anniversary Edition)

This reference example is a Stanwell Jubilaeum smooth Billiard in shape 169, produced in Denmark as part of the commemorative line marking the firm's fiftieth anniversary. The bowl is turned from briar and finished smooth in an auburn stain that displays flame grain across the stummel, while the mouthpiece is cut from vulcanite. The pipe is configured without a filter, in keeping with much of the Danish tradition. At 6.06 inches in length and 1.42 ounces in weight, with a bowl height of 1.98 inches, a chamber depth of 1.81 inches, and a chamber diameter of 0.73 inches, it is a full-sized but light-in-hand smoking instrument. Shape 169 is a 'Nefertiti' variation attributed to the celebrated Danish carver Sixten Ivarsson, whose freelance shape designs for Stanwell brought high-grade Danish aesthetics into serial production. The form here is a Billiard — the archetypal pipe shape, with a straight shank and stem and a gently tapered cylindrical bowl with a rounded heel — rendered with a tall, poised bowl and the softened contours characteristic of the Danish reading of the classic form. Dating this example is unusually straightforward for a factory pipe. The stamping reads STANWELL / JUBILAEUM / 1942 - 92 / 169 / MADE IN DENMARK. Where most Stanwell production must be bracketed loosely by logo and stamp styles, the Jubilaeum line carries its date within the stamp itself: the '1942 - 92' mark ties the pipe explicitly to the fiftieth-anniversary year. The record therefore assigns this pipe to 1992 with the confidence of a self-dating commemorative issue.