You are currently viewing 257. The Pipe of the Year 2021—The Return of Basil Rathbone’s 4AB

257. The Pipe of the Year 2021—The Return of Basil Rathbone’s 4AB

 

THE VERSIONS

Heritage

Terracotta

 

 

Sandblast

Natural

 

PSB

RUSTIC

 

 

Ebony

 

THE LAUNCH

The POY 2021 / 4AB homage will be released Friday morning, December 3rd, 2021, at Smokingpipes.eu and Smokingpipes.com in a limited, numbered edition of 500 pipes total. It will be available this year in seven finishes: rustic, sandblast, ebony, Terracotta, Heritage, PSB and Natural. I haven’t heard whether there is a Supreme or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised. This is the first System in the POY’s twenty-four year history and K&P  has outdone themselves with a painstakingly retro-engineered bowl, ferrule, AB vulcanite mouthpiece and screw-in “chimney” or tenon extension, all taken from the 1937 catalog. It is, in fact, the shape Basil Rathbone smoked opposite Nigel Bruce in many of the Sherlock Holmes films for Twentieth-Century Fox back in the 1930s and ’40s.

“Watson, is there a different time zone in Dublin?”
–the first sighting of Basil Rathbone’s 4AB in the franchise

 

Continuing their practice from previous years,
K&P has issued a special “Chat with the Smoker” brochure in each POY pipe box
as well as a green suede leather pipe bag

The drop for Europe will be 10am GMT, which gives friends across the pond and Very Early Risers here in the US an opportunity to see what’s on offer on the Smokingpipes.eu site before the POY goes on sale later in the morning here in the US.

 

In conjunction with the POY2021, Smokingpipes.com is debuting an exclusive limited edition of The Pipes of Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes, which I believe will be out on Thursday, December 2nd. It features an interview with K&P’s pipe specialist Giacomo Penzo on the creation of the POY 2021 and some of the challenges he and the creative team faced. It also gives the fan a complete survey of the pipes in the Sherlock Holmes 14-film franchise that ran from 1939 to 1946. Kapp & Peterson’s Federica Bruno translated Giaco’s interview and Adam O’Neill, Marketing Manager for SPEu, provided some great photos. If you want the complete story of Rathbone and Peterson pipes, this is it. Help support my PAD and buy a copy to go with your POY!

 

THE ENGINEERING

Take the Reverse-Engineering Challenge: Here’s two 4AB bowls, one from the period of the Rathbone films (c. 1940) and one from the 2021 edition. Which is which? For the answer, scroll to the bottom of this post.

I think all the Pete Geeks have been blown away by the Laudisi Era’s commitment to the heritage of K&P, on display nowhere more clearly than in the three POYs they’ve released. The 2019 John Bull (999) was a first—a P-Lip and a vulcanite stem. It disappointed some because it wasn’t a more exact recreation of the original. The 2020 9BC took things up a level, with K&P’s pipe specialist Giacomo Penzo creating three prototypes and the crew selecting the finest. While it actually turned out to be more like the original Patent shape 9 than the Rogers Imports Ltd. 9BC shape, I had no quibbles. It’s a superb piece of craftsmanship. I have no hesitation in saying that the 2021 4BC is the best of the three, for three reasons: it’s the first System POY ever, the engineering is impeccable throughout and, well, it’s my favorite shape in the catalog—the 4!

The well is a three-decker, quite deep, on both samples I’ve looked at. In fact, you will probably need a doubled pipe cleaner to hit the cellar in addition to the usual twist of tissue for the upper stories. As you can see, I’ve already taken this pipe out for a smoke.

The vulcanite P-Lip is remarkable. I don’t remember seeing one this well-sculpted in a very long time—certainly back to the end of the Late Republic era.

The stem itself is also a bit of a marvel, engineered so far as I can tell to identical specs as the original. When you go to select your own POY, remember that stem bending is a craft and these stems are bent one at a time. Expect some slight variation and look for what pleases you most. A pipe cleaner can be run straight from the button through the end of the chimney (tenon extension) in both my samples. This has definitely not been the case for most of my System pipes with chimneys. The only ones, in fact, that I’ve companioned that can do this routinely are the 1975 Centenary pipes with their special thin extensions.

The stamps are all placed together. For K&P as well as other factory-made pipes, stamps are either hand-pressed or pressed with the use of a vise-like bench tool, and depending on how rounded the surface is, sometimes a full footprint won’t be present around the edges. This is especially so when the stamps, as on the POY, are placed on the most rounded part of the bottom of the shank. You won’t get much help on this from photos at SPC and SPEu, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Neither of my samples has a year stamp, (maybe other do?), but as this is going to be one of those mythical Pipe of the Years that don’t ever come around again, who cares? Every Pete Geek will remember 2021 as “the Year of the Rathbone 4AB.”

Laudisi-era K&P continues to use the understated, classic Peterson’s over DUBLIN stamp for the sterling, albeit this year on the obverse side of the shank (nice touch). The hallmark stamps, which are done by the Goldsmiths of Dublin and not at K&P, are crisp and tell the year story quite well—“K” for 2021 (which letter also graces the hallmarks on the back cover of the new paperback version of The Peterson Pipe: The Story of Kapp & Peterson, due out in the fairly-near future).

For those who prefer an uncoated chamber, the Natural is issued that way. But on all the K&P POYs this year, the pre-carbon can be gently washed out with water, allowing the smoker to begin with a bare chamber if he or she so chooses.

 

 

THE BACK STORY

from the 1906 Catalog

As I know everyone tires of me saying, the 4 is the iconic bowl hanging from the lips of the Thinking Man as the 4s De Luxe. It was originally available in several mounts, but what concerns us is the tapered army used on the System 1st Quality and System 0—what we think of today as the De Luxe and the Premier.

There have only been two catalog appearances of the 4AB that I know of, the first in1906 and the second in the 1937. The original Patent shape (above) differs from the later version (below) primarily in the way the bowl is turned at the mortise into a bit more of a point, making the ferrule a bit more pointed as well. The 1937 version assumes the fuller, rounder, chubbier Peterson ferrule house style that was coming into its own by the late 1930s. The 309 remained the same from 1937 until its demise in 2012, varying only in the slight differences caused by sanding and chamber diameters.

By the 1940s K&P had expanded its catalog in other directions and the sterling A (army) and AB (army taper) mounts had been eliminated from the top System lines. The AB disappeared altogether at about this time, while the A went into the Standard System as the 309 (Premier) and 359 (Standard) for most of the Éire era (1938-48). By the end of that period, the 359 was dropped, leaving only the 309 in both Premier and Standard.

As we relate in The Peterson Pipe, the shop on Grafton Street in Dublin received regular requests for “that pipe Sherlock Holmes smokes” from the 1940s onward—referring to Basil Rathbone’s 4AB. In 1987, the corporate memory recalled this love, embarking on the long and successful Sherlock Holmes series, eventually producing 18 shapes, 14 of which are still in production. No one thought to make a 4AB, probably because the 4 was still in production at that time and because the average pipe smoker more readily identified with the image of a calabash, which Paddy Larrigan used in The Original (which was an XL version of the 05 calabash made to replace the bent dublin 05 which was retired in 1984).

Gosser’s “Sherlock Holmes in Pipe Heaven”

Fast forward to 2013, two years into the creation of the Peterson book, and I began corresponding with illustrator Larry Gosser, whose work would later grace the pages of that book. When I found out the illustration of Holmes at the tobacco shop was in fact not in Gosser’s imagination but actually seen in one of the movies, I contacted a film professor at UCLA and with his help began gathering screen captures for what would become The Pipes of Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes, which was first published in May 2019 and debuted at the Chicagoland Pipe Show. Early drafts appeared of that book appeared on a blog I was writing in 2014 or so, and not longer afterwards I began to get requests about how to find a 4AB. Of course, there wasn’t one, although by that time I’d sent a really nice shape 4 bowl to be retrofitted with an AB stem and I knew a few Pete Geeks sent their own bowls for the same treatment. After the book went through its print run in 2020 and finding out there would be a POY late that year, I thought it was time to bring the long-evolving project to its conclusion with the help of Giacomo Penzo, Federica Bruno, Adam O’Neill and Josh Burgess at K&P. If you want one of these books to accompany your POY, don’t wait too long. There won’t be any more!

309 with a factory retrofit AB stem, c. 2016

At that 2019Chicago show, I ran into comics illustrator and tobacco-reviewer extraordinaire Jim Amash, aka “Jiminks,”who  told me he’d met with Shane Ireland (Director of SPC) about the 4AB the year before at the Las Vegas show and we agreed to promote the shape to our friends and fellow pipe smokers, which we did over the course of the next year. Before the end of 2020, K&P had committed to the project and began the lengthy process of reverse-engineering, which involved not only cutting a bowl identical to the one from the Éire era but making sure the shank end was cut in such a way as to allow their silversmiths to match the “turnover” of sterling on the earlier pipe. Then there was the whole issue of the bend of the specially-created P-Lip AB stem, which I’m hoping someone at SPC or K&P—Andy or Shane or Josh—might take up and explain in one of the great videos they do at The Daily Reader.

I’m thinking this year’s POY will sell out faster than any in the company’s history. Look for it Friday morning!

 

Good luck, good hunting—Dia is Muire duit!

Thanks to Josh Burgess, Andy Wike & Adam O’Neill
at K&P and Laudisi for all their help and support,
and of course to the incredible craftsmen and women at
Kapp & Peterson for their skill and passion in this project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1940 System “O” (left) and 2021 POY (right)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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William Auld
William Auld
2 years ago

HOTDOG!!

Scott Forrest
Scott Forrest
2 years ago

Very excited about this – thanks for the, as usual, thorough description and history. Also looking forward to seeing the new edition of your Sherlock Holmes book.

Jim V
Jim V
2 years ago

I’ve had one for over a year now. The 359 system that’s on page 5 of your book that I bought from you. I had a custom 4AB stem made for it that’s acrylic so it won’t oxidize like Basil Rathbone’s did. Thanks again Mark, I smoke it often when I watch the old Sherlock Holmes movies. I still say the Scarlet Craw and The House of Fear and the best pipe smoking movies of the series.
Jim V

Douglas Owen
Douglas Owen
2 years ago
Reply to  Jim V

Hey Jim: I almost went the same route as you with having an AB stem made but never quite pulled the trigger. Anyway, I totally agree with you on the movies. Just to pick your brain, in The House of Fear,I think that pipe Captain Simpson is smoking is a Custombilt, which if true would be a small mistake in the sense that this episode supposedly took place in Scotland and I suspect very few, if any, Custombilts ever made their way to the British Isles. Of course being a sea captain he might have picked it up during a… Read more »

Jim V
Jim V
2 years ago
Reply to  Douglas Owen

Had to be the fault of the prop department because that’s a Custom-Bilt for sure that Simpson is smoking. All those guys were stock actors in all the Rathbone and Bruce films. They were made by Univeral and Paramount. They probably brought their own pipes when making the films.
Jim V

Rob Guttridge
Rob Guttridge
2 years ago

Finally, a System POY, and in a beloved shape! 500 won’t be nearly enough for us….

Scott Forrest
Scott Forrest
2 years ago
Reply to  Rob Guttridge

I think you’re right – last year’s sold out fast at only 400.

Marlowe
Marlowe
2 years ago

Wow! This IS a temptation Mark – and so close to Christmas! I couldn’t follow all the pipe history you related which is likely why the book would be a necessary purchase as well! All very interesting and well presented…as usual.

Did you get my email with my Dublin shape photos? I know you’ve had difficulty emailing me in the past.

Pierre Leslie Freud
Pierre Leslie Freud
2 years ago

Greetings Mark,
As usual very informative article. How is the 2021POY different than the Christmas Sherlock Holmes Basil Rathbone edition? Besides the P-Lip. It seems to me that the stem is longer ?
Take care,
Pierre.

Bob Cuccaro/TLIP
Bob Cuccaro/TLIP
2 years ago

To decide is going to be tough. The terracotta rings that old charm color true to Rathbone movies….. yet a silver cap and perhaps a natural supreme sandblast! May have to check US and European sites 🙂

Douglas Owen
Douglas Owen
2 years ago

Hey Mark: you have no idea how elated I was to see the 4AB as the pipe of the year. Being a Rathbone/Bruce Holmes series fanatic I have been looking for that shape for decades with of course, no luck because the mouthpiece shape is unique in that it is a total taper, no step down cut like the newer systems. So FYI I was able to grab the last 3 in the Laudisi inventory for my shop, a PSB, an Eboney and a Natural, one of which will go into my personal rack.

John Schantz
John Schantz
2 years ago

I have heard through the “grapevine” of the purposed prices?. I think Peterson has priced me out. I’m not a fan of the dark finishes that hide flaws and/or bad/non-existent grain anyway.

Joe Marti
Joe Marti
2 years ago

Oh boy. At last! Grrrrrreeeeaaaat article and most welcome news! I may have missed it, but what time does it go on sale in the US?

Last edited 2 years ago by Joe Marti
Al Jones
Al Jones
2 years ago

Thats my shape for sure! And, with a proper P-lip, vulcanite stem, exactly as Charles Peterson intended! I’m aiming for a PSB version Friday morning (to match my 2020 POY)

Chris Streeper
Chris Streeper
2 years ago

The game is a foot!

Al Jones
Al Jones
2 years ago

Has anyone ever encountered a vintage 4 AB? I can’t recall ever encountering an original shape on Ebay, pipe forums or pipe shows.

James Augustino
James Augustino
2 years ago

Thanks Mark ! This is what Ive been waiting for, when I first saw this I had to grab a napkin to pat my forehead as I have alredy begun to sweat LOL! A pipe and a book is definatly locked in,,,,, ( I Hope)

James Augustino
James Augustino
2 years ago

I think I need a spelling class,,( already,) must be the PAD

Charles Morrison
Charles Morrison
2 years ago

Is it 500 total pipes or 500 of each version?

Rob Denholtz
Rob Denholtz
2 years ago

How would you contrast the 2021 POY with the 309?

Jim Amash
Jim Amash
2 years ago

A great article, Mark. I’ve been smoking the 4ABs since Saturday. They smoke cool and clean, and were very easy to break in. I am a dry smoker, and notice when I clean the reservoir, I pull up very little dampness with a Q-Tip. Terrific engineering and shaping. I’m thrilled to finally own a 4AB… actually five of them. As I wrote in my article, which some commenters have read, it took me 47 years to have the enjoyment of the 4AB. There’s no question in my mind that others will love this pipe.

Last edited 2 years ago by Jim Amash
Jesse
Jesse
2 years ago

Great article, thanks! Any idea what the price range might be?

Hunter Hughes
Hunter Hughes
2 years ago

I can’t wait to buy mine! I haven’t decided what finish though.

Wiz
Wiz
2 years ago

I’m genuinely excited about this year’s offering. I sure hope I manage to grab a Heritage, but as they say, beggars can’t be choosers. Any finish will work. That stem makes it, what a perfectly balanced looking pipe.

Jon
Jon
2 years ago

Excellent article, Mark! As always I really appreciate the historic context you provide and all of the diagrams and photos. It’s a real pleasure to read, like a virtual museum! Your passion comes through strongly, and you’ve inspired me to go watch all of the Basil Rathbone Holmes films. You mentioned: “the pre-carbon can be gently washed out with water” for the pre-carbonized models. Would you go about doing this with simply a wet paper towel wiped in the bowl, or do you need more water to break it down and actually fill the bowl with water? And do you… Read more »

Jon
Jon
2 years ago
Reply to  Mark Irwin

Thank you for your reply and explanation, Mark! What great timing on the blog post. I’m looking forward to it! From the sound of it, I’ll probably be following your advice and leaving the pre-carb intact. I do agree that it’s a pleasure to smoke when breaking in! The one issue I personally have noticed with it is during cleanup after a bowl, some unburnt tobacco has a tendency to really stick to the walls of it and is hard to scrape off. That does get better with some break in, though, and then it cakes nicely. Thanks again!

Al Jones
Al Jones
2 years ago

#194 Sandblast was delivered today. Mine does have the 2021 date stamp on the nomenclature. Wow, the sandblast is great, in fact quite close to my the blast on my PSB 2020 POY. I’m glad that I didn’t pay the premium for a PSB. Fit and finish is excellent, that stem really is a peach. My wife commandeered it for Christmas Day, so, the rest ride will have to wait.

Al Jones
Al Jones
2 years ago

I’m one that loves the new pre-carb. Taste is neutral and cake develops very quickly. I’m a fan, don’t change a thing Peterson!

Scott Forrest
Scott Forrest
2 years ago
Reply to  Mark Irwin

I just received my Heritage. The factory bowl coating is almost the same as what my Terracotta has after two careful smokes. I wonder if the sugar in the VAs actually helps with the coating? I normally break in pipes with 3 P’s; however, this time I had a bowl of Sutliff 507-S (as Sherlock might have done), followed by a bowl of 1022. I appreciate your advice to pick out a stem with a preferred bend – I did that with the three pipes I chose from SP, but all that extra time cost me two of the pipes.… Read more »

Jesse
Jesse
2 years ago

My Heritage finally arrived from the UK—missed the US drop—and was a little surprised to find the band already looks very coppery. In your experience, Mark, have you ever seen new Petes show up so tarnished? If not for the hallmarks and their reputation I would assume it was plated instead of pure silver, that’s how off it is right out of the box :/

Chris Tarman
Chris Tarman
2 years ago

I missed these on Smokingpipes.com (even though I looked the morning they dropped), and I hadn’t been able to find one anywhere (except Black Swan, which shows that they’re currently not shipping outside of the UK). But I just nabbed one from a shop in Germany on eBay! It won’t be here until well into January, but at least I got one! Yay!!!

Joe Marti
Joe Marti
2 years ago

For those of us in the dark, I have a few questions. I haven’t seen one of these yet (just paid the layaway Friday, so it’s en route). What is it about this stem that made it so difficult to create? How is it so different in design and manufacturing that it would present such a challenge? Was the difficulty mainly in the design, or is it hard to make as well. Related to question #2, if it IS difficult to make, would a different stem, easier to make, be the compromise needed to bring this shape back into regular… Read more »

Charles Funn
Charles Funn
2 years ago

I recently bought two of the 4ABs at a somewhat local shop, after Smoking Pipes had sold out. I got the Terracotta and the Heritage. Smoked a bowl of Sweet Killarney in the Terracotta. I ordered Basil Rathbone’s personal blend to finish the breaking in period. I must say the bowl smokes perfect all the way down. I smeared some bourbon, Uncle Nearest, in the bowl noticing the coating does partially come out. Perfectly engineered pipe!!

Joseph
Joseph
2 years ago

I missed out on this one…2021 Pipe of the year…,and damn I’m disappointed. Ironically I have been watching the Basil Rathbone, Sherlock series during the past weeks.

Chuck Vogan
2 years ago

Mark, I’ve got a pencil portrait of Rathbone as Holmes, if you’re interested. Let me know.
cvogan@yahoo.com

Mark O
Mark O
2 years ago

Hello.

Will this become mainstream? Or are Petersons continuing with their Rathbone pipe? Managed to purchase 4ab and love the design and smokes beautifully. Such a shame it has had a very limited run.

Lee D
Lee D
2 years ago

I have a Peterson pipe of similar shape to the 4AB 2021 POY, except the mouthpiece is a saddle, so maybe a 4S? It actually looks very much like a well-used (but fairly well preserved) sibling of the pipe in your site header. According to your hallmark info, it was made in 1920. I’d appreciate it if I could send you more info, and you would be so kind as to help ID the pipe. Do you mind?

James Marsh
James Marsh
1 year ago

Can Peterson pipes retrofit my System Special pipe with an AB mouthpiece? Please let me know and I will send you my pipe for the retrofit.Thank you Jim Marsh
jamesmarsh341@gmail.com

Rudy B.
Rudy B.
4 months ago

Hi Mark,

You mentioned above that in the past you had sent a nice “shape 4 bowl to be retrofitted with an AB stem”. May I ask who you did the work? Was it Peterson in Dublin or an independent repairman?

Best,

Rudy