“For the good that I would I do not:
but the evil which I would not, that I do.”
—St. Paul (Rom. 7:19)
DROP PARTY: The 2023 Halloween System Jekyll & Hyde will drop at SPC this coming Tuesday, October 3rd, at 6pm EST. Shapes will include 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 312, 313, 314, 317, B42 and XL315—which is the complete standard System shape chart.
This is the third annual Laudisi era-Halloween commemorative and it’s the second System–a cause for rejoicing for the diehard Pete fans and a good time to reassess the fascination of the Jekyll / Hyde archetype.
The Classic Line Jekyll & Hyde debuted in 2015, just three years after the Dracula line. It originally consisted just of just two shapes–the 05 bentand the X105 straight billiard, which you can see at Post #21. The line currently boasts eleven shapes and has become a staple in the catalog. What I love about J&H these days is the chance to see the current super-gnarly rustication in black. This is just heavy metal greatness. It also amps up the glossy appeal of the ruby red stain–and I hope the contrast red & black on the smooth side is really as heightened as the studio photos suggest.
All the System shapes will feature the acrylic P-Lip, which may lack a bit in the soft shoulders of the stem as compared to the vulcanite counterpart but which features a better button that most of the currently-available vulcanite P-Lips. As these acrylic P-Lip stems are also shorter than what’s available in vulcanite, they also create a more compact look for each of the shapes.
If you’re not familiar with the way the J&H design works (and I confess I certainly didn’t remember), take a look at the photos above and below and take note: Sometimes the smooth sphere is on the right of the bowl, sometimes on the left. Interesting. Unsettling. Uncanny.
The Jekyll & Hyde is one of the few K&P lines to lack an Irish back story, launching instead on its connection to the Dracula pipe. However, for the Thinking Man there are a number of thought provoking routes into enthusiasm for the new Jekyll & Hyde System. The first is via pop culture, by way of the various film adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson’s original novella. Chief among these is the pre-code 1931 Paramount feature starring Frederick March and Miriam Hopkins with music by J. S. Bach and cinematography by the renowned Karl Struss, directed by Rouben Mamoulian. There are dozens of others on offer, but if you’re still writing your dance card for this Halloween’s Uncanny Film Festival, begin here and for my money skip the rest.
A second road into J&H is via the required reading of Stevenson’s 1886 Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). It’s one of those staples of Gothic horror that will never go away, at least until there are no longer readers (which may not be too far off, alas). If you prefer to listen to the story while you gaze in rapt admiration of your J&H System, Richard Armitage’s masterful audiobook is the way to go. Armitage, in case you’ve forgotten, played Thorin Oakenshield in the Jackson Hobbit trilogy, among countless other (and more important) roles.
Robert Louis Stevenson
A final, more perilous path, is to smoke your J&H System as a contemplative vehicle for self-awareness, exploring the duality of human nature (the “Thinking Man,” indeed). As Stevenson writes, “Man is not truly one but truly two.”
Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie
Glad did I live and gladly die
And I laid me down with a will
This be the verse you grave for me
Here he lies where he longed to be
Home is the sailor home from the sea
And the hunter home from the hill
—epitaph on Stevenson’s grave
Photos courtesy of Laudisi
with thanks to Andy Wike
P.S. Hope to see you at the Drop Party!
I know the shape I want, so try not to let it wander into your cart! LOL
I have always been reluctant about this design, but it’s interesting anyway. Thanks for these words, Mark.
P.S. I am tempted to read again the Stevenson’s novel 🙂
Well, not a lot of imagination went into this year’s Halloween release. I hope it is at least stamped “Halloween 2023” so as to distinguish these pipe from the others. Although it is still a System/P-Lip offering.
I have a B10 Jekyll and Hyde already. I’ll be adding either a 306 or a 312 Halloween Jekyll and Hyde. Looking forward to another P-Lip.
Darwin will be in my cart for sure :). Never got the original JnH but being a system pipe and adding the Darwin sold TLIP.
Somehow, I think Peterson…should do…two pipes…sell them as a pair…one Dr. Jekyll and the other one as Mr. Hyde…then we have Dr. Jekyll on Christmas and Mr. Hyde on Halloween…????????
I think this is great, any time peterson releases and showcases the system is a good time and good thing in my opinion. Undecided on which shape I will get, I have always been a fan of this Jekyll and Hyde look and have wanted one in a system, I suppose I’ll just go with what I like the looks of the most at the time during the drop as there are a handful of shapes I think I’d want ?
Thanks for the write up Mark!
I’m not much of a fan of the J&H series, but these photos really make them look sharp. Too bad they didn’t come up with a two tone stem cut on the bias the same as the bowls are finished. The stems could have had red on one side, black on the other and each opposite the finish on each pipe. Whichever side has the black rustication gets the red side of the stem, and the smooth red side of the bowl gets the black side of the stem.
I’ve never had a J&H so this is the perfect opportunity! I try to choose and day after day I end up in a 302 which in my imagination looks like a big pumpkin or a 306 which is a shape that I always want to get but in the end I never choose.
Also, I like the look of the shorter stem…maybe this is why I’m looking more closely at them than I ever did with the “normal” J&H?
I am just trying to imagine how a system shape 31 would have looked as a J&H. Rather adorible, I think.
X31 would look great in JnH!
X31?
I never realized how much Robert Louis Stevenson looks like Donald Southerland!
Beautiful pipes!
FINALLY! I so love this – in a real system, with a p-lip! I didn’t think I would ever get a J/H system. Hooray Peterson & thanks Mark for sharing your St. Paul quote that perfectly captures the Jekyll / Hyde that exists within each of us.That duality is so masterfully dramatized in Stevenson’s classic tale. The darkness & monster within is such a deep fertile soil for so many of the ‘uncanny’ season’s films & novels. RLS is amongst the best to ever develop the genre. Also, thanks for sharing his epitaph, for as much as I would like… Read more »
J&H just not my thing.
I’ve never been really interested in the J&H series. The pipe actually makes me think ore of the Marvel comic’s Batman villain “Two-Face”. Interesting but pass.
Do they have an aluminum tenon extension? I’ve always imagined that these were pieces of briar that were somehow flawed and then sort of repurposed…
Hi Haggis! The only Systems that carry the aluminum tenon extension are the DeLuxe and the Premiers. The Standard System, since its inception in 1891, never has. Briar grading is a more complex process than a comment here can answer–you can read about it in the Peterson book at length. Short answer? Every pipe maker grades bowls according to grain and fills. Every pipe maker needs to make a profit from briar blocks they buy. At Peterson and other “factories”–from the first–these blocks have been slotted into smooth (by amount of grain), sandblast and rustic. Sometimes a rustic or blast… Read more »
Very excited to have just snagged a 317. And for whatever reason I gravitated towards the ones with the smooth finish on the left side of the pipe.
Sweet! I’m still at the Drop Party but it was such a relief to have a few minutes to look at different versions of the same shape. I wanted a 307 really bad, and I wanted it rusticated on the left hand side–don’t ask me why. I’m actually left-handed, but for some reason thought it would be fun to roll my left thumb over that rustication. Hmm. Screwy. Anyway–I noticed the pipes with smooth on the “obverse” (left hand side) have the stamps on the RIGHT or “reverse.” So, of course, right? Except that Peterson pipes always have the stamps… Read more »
Well I impulsively snagged an xl315. It’ll go great with my ’21 Halloween xl315 and the upcoming xl5bc.
I successfully snagged a 313, can’t wait for it to arrive. I couldn’t resist a System with this finish! Thanks for the heads up on the drop and for the great article Mark!