Stanwell pipes Quality Control

I was thinking of buying a Stanwell bulldog-shaped pipe recently and was doing some price comparisons. One business, Smokingpipes.com, always has an extensive stock of different makes of pipes but does not carry new Stanwell pipes. Curious, I sent an email to them, asking why they didn't carry them. Here is the response:

Hello John,
We stopped carrying the Stanwell line awhile back. The pipes were no longer meeting our QC teams expectations and no longer carry them. We do occasionally receive Stanwells in our Estates Category. Any new arrivals are placed on the site on Monday and Thursday afternoons approximately 3:30pm EST.
Mark Pluta
Customer Service Liaison


I haven't researched the reason for this decline in QC, but I would guess it has something to do with a change in ownership. Anybody able to shed some light on this?

I had a Stanwell pipe, purchased in 197x that was quite good. Lost it though. I guess QC had slipped since then.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pipe Smoker

I had a Stanwell pipe, purchased in 197x that was quite good. Lost it though. I guess QC had slipped since then.

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Your Stanwell, made in the 1970's, was one of the good ones. I broke down and did a little research and found out that Scandinavian Tobacco Group makes them as of 2010. Instead of Denmark, they are now made in Italy (not that the country of origin is a factor, just FYI).