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Brand Dating Guides
Schneiderwind is a pipe shop in Aachen, Germany, not a factory. From 1987 it ordered a yearly pipe from known makers. The year is engraved on the silver band.
Updated 2026-09-26
Welcome. If your pipe says Schneiderwind and W.O. SELECTION on the shank, this guide is for you.
Schneiderwind is a tobacco and pipe shop in Aachen, Germany. It is still trading today.
The shop does not make pipes. It ordered them from established makers and put its own name on them.
From 1987 the shop sold a yearly pipe in small numbers. In German this is a Jahrespfeife, which means "annual pipe".
The good news: the year is engraved on the sterling silver band. You can read it, not guess it.
The one mark that gives an exact year
The band is engraved with words like "Aachen 1994 exclusiv fuer Schneiderwind". In English that means "Aachen 1994, made only for Schneiderwind".
The silver mark 925 sits beside the engraving.
The year on that band is the year of the pipe. No range is needed.
The engraving often runs round the band. Turn the pipe and read, or photograph, the whole band.
If you cannot read the whole band, the pipe is undated. Do not guess a year from the maker or the shape.
Some bands also carry the word AACHEN beside the silver mark. One long silver mount is stamped SILVER 925.
The maker is stamped beside the house mark
The shop mark is "Schneiderwind" in script, with W.O. SELECTION in capitals below it.
The maker, when shown, is stamped on its own: Stanwell, BENTLEY or brebbia.
Pipedia, the collectors' pipe website, lists Schneiderwind as a brand made by Bentley for the Aachen shop.
We have seen three makers so far: Stanwell, Bentley and Brebbia.
Some pipes carry only the shop mark and no maker. That is normal, not a worn or false stamp.
We have two 1994 pipes like this, from two separate sources.
Our record, not the full series
A German trade description says the first annual pipe was made in 1987. Our own oldest sale is also a 1987 pipe.
1987 and 1989: made by Stanwell, from our own sales record.
1988: made by Stanwell, model number 33030, from one estate shop listing only.
1989 and 1990: photographed in a German collectors' forum thread of 2009.
1991: named in one German listing only.
1993: made by Bentley. 1994: made by Bentley, and also seen with no maker named.
1995: made by Brebbia and by Bentley. We read this year on a band in our own hands.
1997: a Brebbia Pura with a band engraved AACHEN 1997, in our own hands.
We have not seen 1992 or 1996. That is a gap in our record, not proof of a gap in the series.
The 2009 forum thread asks whether the series might come back. So it may have stopped by then.
We do not know the last year of the series, and we do not guess it.
Why a Bentley stamp sets a floor
Bentley is the brand of Hans "Former" Nielsen, a Danish pipe maker.
Former ran the pipe workshop of W.Ø. Larsen in Copenhagen for about ten years.
In 1986 he was asked to renew the old Bru-Bu pipe works in Switzerland. There he created Bentley.
Smokingpipes.com says the first Bentley pipes were sold in 1987. That is the same year the annual series began.
Bentley was made in Switzerland from 1986 to 1996. From 1997 it was made at Dan Pipe in Lauenburg, Germany.
So a Bentley-made Schneiderwind of 1993 or 1995 was made in Switzerland, not in Denmark.
Schneiderwind did not make the pipe. The maker is the name stamped beside the shop mark.
The mark is W.O. SELECTION. We have checked: there is no "W.O. Collection".
Nobody has shown what W.O. means. Former's years at W.Ø. Larsen are true, but no document links them to the stamp.
So do not write that W.O. stands for W.Ø. Larsen. A W.Ø. Larsen pipe is a separate brand.
Many old listings spell the name "Schniederwind". Search both spellings.
Many old listings say these Bentley pipes are Danish. Before 1997, Bentley pipes were made in Switzerland.
A Stanwell or Brebbia stamp does not date a Schneiderwind. Only the band gives the year.
A missing maker stamp never dates a pipe, and a hidden band never dates it either.
Read the engraved band first. It gives the exact year.
Band engraved “Aachen” with a year, for Schneiderwind, beside 925
Read the year on the band. It is the year of the pipe. Read the whole band before you write a year.
These give only an earliest year. Use them when the band cannot be read.
“BENTLEY” stamped beside the Schneiderwind mark
Bentley did not exist before 1986. Pipedia's Former and Bentley pages agree on this.
“W.O. SELECTION”, or the word Jahrespfeife (German for annual pipe)
The annual series began in 1987, says a German trade description. Our own oldest sale agrees. The shop itself is older.
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 Schneiderwindyou can't place? Our shelves usually hold a few — documented to this same standard.
Schneiderwind in the Shop