317. The Fat Boy in K&P’s Collective Unconscious, 1916—2022
Introduction The great depth psychologist Carl Jung—a Peterson System smoker at one point—used the term collective unconscious to refer to ancestral memory and experience, one common to all. As many Pete Geeks know, Kapp & Peterson has always relied on the traditionally-Irish “sit by Nellie” apprenticeship of their craftsmen, which lasts between five and seven years. I have said before that I believe this type of training—no doubt practiced since the company began—confers a kind of apostolic succession on succeeding generations of artisans. I think a case can be made that this kind of training therefore creates a collective memory that is inherited by succeeding generations in their understanding of house style and engineering. Certainly there are a number of instances in company history where an idea disappears and then resurfaces years or even decades later. When Ben Ward from Australia sent me photos of an amazing 1916 Patent a few weeks ago, the thought surfaced again. An early photo of Jung smoking his Peterson System 02 or 356* So this morning I want to begin in 1984 (the middle), drop back to 1979, move up to the end (2022) and then circle all the way back to the very beginning (1916) for what is probably just a coincidence or may just possibly be a Jungian thread linking all three. Part One When Ben emailed me with photos of his amazing 1916 Patent, I had just received one of my “unicorns” or “holy grail” pipes. I first saw it in an undated black & white catalog illustration the late Chuck Wright sent me back around 2011.The photo, I eventually discovered, is from the final Associated Imports Corporation catalog, who was the K&P-owned US distributor from around 1968 until 1982. It’s a fantastic photo and was important at the time for understanding how bowls crossed from System to Classic ranges and changed pipe shape numbers—something which was very much up in the air at the time: Note the fascinating stems as well as cross-reference pipe shape numbers. There’s two stems here we no longer see, one that looks like a WDC on steroids—the flared-shoulder seen on the 305 in the second row and the 303 in the third. Hold onto that image as I’ll circle back to it. What I’ve been looking for since seeing this photo, however, is a 302 with the short stem (an AC or army mount / short) seen in the first row. It is positively chubby, a real Fat Boy, in its proportions. But it’s not the original-release stem as I first believed. The original release is found in the 1979 update to the 1975 Orange catalog: Take a look at the 302 in the bottom of the first row. That’s the first official K&P ephemera photo of the 302. And if you want to see something really rare, take a look at the second row. The 2s at the top has got an F (Facing) mount coupled with the wide-flare army stem. It’s a…