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Brand Dating Guides
A Kriswill carries no year code. The lettering of the name, the stem logo and a country stamp place it in an era.
Updated 2026-09-27
Welcome. If your pipe says Kriswill, this guide helps you place it in its era.
Kriswill pipes were made by Kriswork Briar Trading in Kolding, Denmark.
In the 1960s and 1970s it was one of two large Danish pipe factories, says Pipedia. The other was Stanwell.
A Kriswill carries no year code. You can place many pipes in an era, but not in one year.
Our main sources are two collector websites. Pipedia is an online pipe encyclopedia. Pipephil is a website of pipe markings.
Where the two disagree, we show both. We say when a fact has one source only.
From the Rocky pipes to the name sold abroad
Karl Robert Kris was a ship's engineer. In 1947 he started making pipes in Kolding, says Pipedia.
His first pipes were sold in Denmark under the name Rocky. Those pipes are not stamped Kriswill.
In the mid-1950s he built a new factory, says Pipedia. The pipes were first named Kriswell.
Stanwell objected that Kriswell was too close to its own name. So the name became Kriswill.
Pipephil says the brand was established about 1955. Pipedia's first line says the late 1950s.
So this guide starts the Kriswill name in 1955, the earliest of the two.
At its peak, in the mid-1960s, the factory had 40 employees, says Pipedia.
Karl Robert Kris died in 1966, says Pipedia. His son Jens ran the firm until 1975, says the same page.
Pipedia says the firm failed soon after Jens left. Pipephil says it went bankrupt in the late 1970s.
Erik Nørding bought the machines after the failure, says Pipedia.
Script letters or block letters
Script letters are joined, like handwriting. Block letters are separate capital letters.
Pipephil gives one rule. Before 1970, the name is in script letters on the shank and on the stem.
From 1970, the shank has block letters and the stem has a star logo.
This rule is from pipephil only. So we rank it medium, not high.
Pipedia does not give this rule. It does not contradict it either.
A stamp seen on a Kriswill: KRISWILL 1485 SUPREME HAND MADE IN DENMARK.
Another: KRISWILL 449 SAGA. The number is the shape number, not a year.
The two sources disagree on its first year
The stem logo is a compass rose, the star seen on a sea chart. It honours the founder's years at sea.
Pipephil calls it a star. It says the star came in from 1970.
Pipedia says the compass rose came with the Kriswill name, in the mid or late 1950s.
The two sources are 15 years apart. So we keep the wide range, 1955 onward, and rank it low.
Named in our sources, with no years
Our sources name these lines: Golden Clipper, Chief, Danish Clipper, Bernadotte, Saga, Supreme, Count and Kriscon.
Golden Clipper pipes were smaller and lighter, for Europe. Chief pipes were larger, for the American market.
The Bernadotte line was designed by Sigvard Bernadotte and Acton Bjørn. Bernadotte was a Swedish prince.
Seconds are pipes with a small flaw, sold under another name. Kriswill seconds were Danish Crown and Navigator.
Both sources agree on the two seconds names.
Our cabinet is our file of sourced dating facts for one maker. It holds no years for any line name.
So this guide does not date a pipe by its line name.
The Kriswill name lived on in other hands
After the failure, Kriswills were made in Spain for a while in the 1980s. Pipedia says so, one source only.
The Spanish maker was Iberica de Pipas, near Barcelona. Pipedia calls these pipes Kriswills in name only.
Later the German firm Dan Pipe bought the right to the Kriswill name.
Dan Pipe's own catalogues of 2013 and 2019 show new Kriswill pipes. They were made by the Danish carver Poul Winsløw.
The catalogues say the old name stood for Danish shapes until the late 1980s.
These new pipes are made for 9 mm filters. The catalogues do not print the year the new line began.
Pipephil also names the carver Holmer Knudsen for this later line.
HAND MADE IN DENMARK does not prove a Kolding pipe. Dan Pipe's later Kriswills were also made by Danish carvers.
We hold no stamps from the Dan Pipe pipes. So we cannot yet tell them apart by the stamp.
A Kriswell stamp has two meanings. It was the factory's first name in the mid-1950s.
Pipephil says Nørding later made a Kriswell line of its own. So a Kriswell stamp alone does not date a pipe.
Some pipes carry Hand Made for Tiedemann on the underside. Tiedemann was a German pipe dealer. We hold no years for it.
The number on the shank is a shape number, such as 449 or 1485. It is never a year.
Read the word Kriswill first. Then look at the shape of the letters.
The name KRISWILL on the shank
Pipephil dates the brand to about 1955. Pipedia says the late 1950s. The 1947 Rocky pipes do not carry this name.
Kriswill in script (joined) letters on the shank and stem
Pipephil's rule: script letters before 1970. One source only.
Kriswill in block (separate capital) letters on the shank
Pipephil's rule: block letters from 1970. One source only.
Look at the top of the stem.
Compass rose, or star, logo on the stem
Pipephil says from 1970. Pipedia says with the Kriswill name, in the 1950s. We keep the wider range.
Read the country stamp. Only one country stamp dates a Kriswill.
MADE IN SPAIN
Made by Iberica de Pipas for a while in the 1980s. One source only: Pipedia.
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 Kriswillyou can't place? Our shelves usually hold a few — documented to this same standard.
Kriswill in the Shop