283. Early Peterson Ads & the “Dry Smoking Bevel Lip” from Wally Frank’s PIPE LORE
Eugene Umberger, our hobby’s premier bibliographer, Doctor of Pipes, author of the comprehensive Tobacco and Its Use and several fine articles in Pipes & Tobaccos and The Pipe Collector, recently sent me some photos to share with you from Wally Frank’s Pipe Lore. These date from issues in 1938, 1940, 1942 and 1943 and offer some fascinating material on Kapp & Peterson's production history right at the cusp of World War II. What’s more, I think there may be an undocumented Peterson button here, but I'll need your help to substantiate that. MARCH-APRIL 1938 This is an important ad for Pete Geeks as it comes prior to the important 1939 catalog. When Rogers took over K&P’s US distribution, Wally Frank eventually seems to have dropped Peterson from its lineup. The ad features what appears to be a P-Lip nickel-band entry grade, what in the 1939 Rogers catalog will be the Shamrock line. I don’t make out a shamrock on the band and doubt that it’s there since Rogers had filed a copyright for Shamrock in 1937. There’s six shapes, five standard straights—the illustrated billiard (8) and four outline shapes--apple (2), dublin (3), pot (21) and bulldog (29). Then an oom paul. The numbers don't correspond to anything in the K&P catalog but match the identical shapes Wally Frank illustrates in the Captain Peterson charts later on, so these are obviously stock numbers used at WF. As K&P made so many of the first five shapes, it’s almost pointless to speculate which shape numbers any of them might be. If it is an oom paul, however, the full bent would be the 02B. Notice how much space is given in the ad to educating the smoker—four separate panels. The one showing the way the smoke travels over the tongue is fantastic. To my knowledge no one has ever gone to this trouble before—including K&P. The two P-Lip ads are also quite useful, especially to the uninitiate. “The Perfect Clogless Bore” is another great illustration. Only Shane Ireland, Director of Smokingpipes.com, has ever commented about this function of the graduated bore P-Lip—and he’s never seen this ad. While neither the illustration nor the text explains how the graduated airway and P-Lip accomplish the task, at the Las Vegas Pipe Show in 2019 he explained that there’s no way any type of debris, ash or physical matter can be drawn up this type of bore. He may have been speaking of a bent System, but the ad here makes the same claim for the straight—which is, in this case, a “sub-System.” Oh, and notice the remarkable “step-down” tenon extension. Peterson pipes utilized this type of sophisticated tenon into the late 1950s. This one is molded into the stem, while the high-grade lines would use a screw-in bone tenon extension. On the straight Petes I have with this type of of tenon, there’s a little snap when it pops into place. Quite pleasing. APRIL 1940 Wally Frank went all-out for this Father’s Day…