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Brand Dating Guides
Small Danish makers sign their own pipes. The maker's working years give the window.
Updated 2026-10-16
Welcome. This guide is for pipes made by hand by the small Danish masters.
These makers do not use date codes. Most signed their pipes with their own name.
So the best date is the maker's working years. Some pipes also carry a stamped year.
Makers with their own guide are not here: Nørding, Karl Erik, Bari and W.Ø. Larsen.
Each rule below has a rank: high, medium or low. Read the rank before you trust a window.
About 1950 to 2001
Sixten Ivarsson worked as a repairman at the Suhr pipe shop in Copenhagen in the 1940s.
Around 1950 he left and became Denmark's first independent pipe maker.
He shaped the outside of the pipe first and drilled it second.
He shaped on sanding discs and used bamboo for some shanks.
He created the Peewit shape in the 1950s. Stanwell later sold its own version as shape 30.
He also designed many Stanwell shapes. Our Stanwell guide lists them.
He taught most of the later Danish masters. He died around 2001.
The stamp AN IVARSSON PRODUCT means the pipe was made in Sixten's Copenhagen workshop.
Only three men carved there: Sixten, his son Lars, and Jess Chonowitsch.
Most of the time a small mark shows who carved it. A sun is Sixten, L is Lars, J is Jess.
Many of these pipes, but not all, also carry the year and the pipe's number in that year.
A stamped year is the best date you can get. Read it before any other mark.
In those years the only seller in the USA was Iwan Ries in Chicago.
Take care: AN IVARSSON DESIGN in a circle on a Stanwell is a different stamp. One dealer dates it 2009 to 2010.
Lars Ivarsson, Sixten's son, made pipes from about 1960. He first worked in his father's workshop, then on his own.
Lars died in 2018. His pipes are very collectible.
Nanna Ivarsson is the third generation. Her grandfather Sixten taught her, and she works on her own from about 1990.
Nanna keeps Sixten's papers and drawings. Smokingpipes scanned parts of them in 2014.
Poul Rasmussen took over the Suhr repair shop around 1950, after Sixten left.
He was the master of classic shapes. He ordered pipes by model number, for example a number 42.
He died about 18 months after Jess Chonowitsch came to him in 1966. That points to 1967 or 1968.
His wife Anne Julie then ran the workshop, from 1968 to about 1975.
After that she made her own sculptural pipes, until about 2015. She was also a painter.
From about 1975 she also designed some shapes for Stanwell.
In 1966 Jess Chonowitsch and his father Emil started under Poul Rasmussen.
From about 1967 Jess carved mornings at W.Ø. Larsen and afternoons with Sixten until 1970.
He also did about 18 months of military service inside those years.
In his own words: Rasmussen taught him classic shapes, and Sixten taught him freehands.
In 1970 he opened his own workshop with Emil, on a farm southwest of Copenhagen.
He made about 160 to 200 pipes a year. He sold in Japan, Germany and Switzerland from the 1970s.
He sold in the USA only from 1995.
He never made 9 mm filter pipes himself. He never made the wild Danish Fancy freehands.
His briar came from Corsica, later from northern Italy.
Tom Eltang works in his own Copenhagen workshop from about 1980. He is known for a golden contrast stain.
He designed many Stanwell shapes, among them the 2006 Pipe of the Year, a Peewit tribute to Sixten.
Hans Nielsen was the foreman at W.Ø. Larsen from 1960 to 1985.
He then made pipes under his own brand, FORMER. Our only source gives about 1985, so treat that year with care.
First look for a stamped year. If you find one, that year dates the pipe.
Next look for AN IVARSSON PRODUCT, and then for a sun, an L or a J.
Then read the maker's signature. Use that maker's working years from the table below.
A freehand is a pipe shaped by hand to follow the grain, not to a fixed model.
The Danish Fancy freehand craze ran through the 1960s and 1970s. It faded in the USA in the late 1970s.
These makers sign one-off pipes. We know no shape number charts for them.
A J on an Ivarsson pipe is not a grade. It means Jess carved it, from 1968 to 1970.
Two Stanwell numbers were used twice. Shape 11 and shape 35 each have an Ivarsson and an Anne Julie version.
AN IVARSSON DESIGN on a Stanwell is a factory pipe, not a workshop pipe.
Emil Chonowitsch and Jess Chonowitsch are father and son. Read the first letter of the signature.
A maker's working years are a wide window. Do not shrink them to one decade without a stamped year.
Each row comes from our Danish artisans cabinet. A stamped year on the pipe beats every row.
J on an AN IVARSSON PRODUCT pipe (Jess Chonowitsch)
Jess worked in Sixten's workshop only in these years. Two smokingpipes articles agree.
Poul Rasmussen signature
His death in 1967 or 1968 is the ceiling. The 1950 start is about right.
AN IVARSSON PRODUCT with a sun (Sixten)
Both years are about right. Look for a stamped year on the same pipe.
L on an AN IVARSSON PRODUCT pipe (Lars Ivarsson)
Carved by Lars in his father's workshop. Both years are about right.
Emil Chonowitsch signature
His working years. He shared Jess's workshop from 1970.
Anne Julie signature
Rasmussen workshop to about 1975, then her own pipes. The end year is about right.
Jess Chonowitsch signature
His own workshop from 1970. Before that he carved under other marks.
Tom Eltang signature
His own work from about 1980.
Nanna Ivarsson signature
Her own work from about 1990.
FORMER (Hans Nielsen)
One source only, and it marks the start year as not checked.
What We Don't Know Yet
Published deliberately. If you hold the catalogue, hallmarked example, or period document that closes one of these gaps, write to us — corrections are credited. Every open question across the encyclopedia is gathered on the Open Questions page.
Changelog
Sources
Holding a Danish artisansyou can't place? Our shelves usually hold a few — documented to this same standard.
Danish artisans in the Shop