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The 2025 Chicago Show was not a show like any other, at least for the Peterson pipe community.  What you’re about to see may be the greatest gathering of vintage and new high-grade Petes ever assembled in one place in the history of the world. If this sounds like hyperbole, it’s really not.

It was a treat to bring home  fresh-roasted beans from the show, as coffee is nearly as important to me as Peterson pipes. The 417 Dublin & London is from the vast collection of the late Tony Soderman, “Mr. Can,” whose daughter I was fortunate to meet at the show and who found for me this wonderful memento of Tony, one of the Great Men of the pipe smoking world who dearly loved Peterson and brought literally suitcases (eight or ten) of estate pipes to the Chicago show for many, many years.

You may want to brew a fresh pot before we begin. For myself, I still have some of the beans I bought from the 10 Kids Coffee Co., who shared a table with their Dad, pipe maker Jeremiah Sandahl (his pipes can be seen on Instagram). If you’ve ever had a pot brewed from whole beans roasted just a few days ago and ground right before brewing, you’ll know why the 10 Kids’ coffee was amazing.  I’m hoping they’ll expand their efforts at next year’s show and not only offer beans and samples of their fresh brew, but sell it by the pint, since Iwan Reis no longer provides coffee service at the show.

The nearest approach to it was the 2019 show, where Gary Malmberg, Gigi and I launched The Peterson Pipe: the Story of Kapp & Peterson. Gary brought a collection assembled over a number of years precisely for the book project focusing on Petes from the Patent through Early Republic, while I brought pipes from the Late Republic to the end of the Dublin era in 2018. Then as now Glen Whelan represented Kapp & Peterson with an elegant table, including the 2018 9BC POY, and Josh Burgess personally carried Frederick Kapp’s Exhibition Medal from Dublin to the show for our display cases at the Pheasant Run show. As wonderful as our display was, it was topped just a few weeks ago by the efforts of Lance Dahl, James Walsh, Dan Chasin, Ken Sigel and Glen Whelan.

That’s PSOI’s Dan Chasin (left) and of course, Glen Whelan and Sykes Wilford.

Glen brought the finest collection of Silver Cap Natural Systems and Natural Classic Range pipes I’ve ever seen, each having such incredible grain that only seeing is believing. Fortunately for the blog, some of the Silver Cap Systems didn’t go back to Ireland but appeared at SPC on last Thursday’s drop:

See what I mean? As if that weren’t enough, Glen brought some 4S pipes that he said were unique to the show: two Barley sandblasts, two Ebonys, and a Silver Cap. This Barley, now companioned by Justin Feavel, gives you an idea of what I’m talking about:

Just across from the Smokingpipes Peterson table (and they brought their own amazing pieces) was an array of what I felt like were incredible Peterson estate values on a table by Danishpipes.com.  I don’t know who these fellas are, as their covering said “Windy City” (i.e., Chicago), but the only URL I find for this name seems to be located in Denmark.

There were a number of great Petes on their table, most less than $120, and at least two that I wish I’d brought back with me.

There were great pipes to be found by those who, like Dan, James, and Lance, got out and really searched. James found a 9S Centenary by digging through someone’s box (so I seem to remember) that I almost, almost asked him to sell or trade me. But Gigi saw me open my mouth and kicked me under the table, told me to quit drooling and let James enjoy his new find.  Thanks, Mom.  She’s like that—always looking out for the other guy–and keeping me from putting my foot in my mouth).

Justin also sent me photos of two more finds—his first Patent, a glorious O1—and a beautiful early 999 Spigot that looks to be from the late 1970s.

Amu Torres, Mid-West Laudisi Rep

Amu Torres brought a really unusual Irish Carving Shamrocks to the PPN table for me to see.  It’s unusual for a number of reasons–the P-Lip, the higher grade of carving than is often seen on these, and the fact that it was made for Donegal!

The smoking tent, of course, was where a lot of the sharing was done. In the photo above, Lance and Glen are discussing engineering on the beautiful 3312 calabash (I think) Lance brought:

The tent was also the place where everyone was able to finally get together over a bowl or meet each other for the first time after sometimes several years of emailing back and forth.

Of course, sometimes rather shady & danger-looking character could be seen roaming the tent at night. Fortunately, that would not be Jonathan Gut and Gary Hamilton.  But what about these guys:

I knew better than to mess with these gents (Dan, Steve Mawby of SPC, and James Ravenwood)

Jonathan Gut, who shared his System Giant a few posts back, brought the pipe and smoked it.  I believe it filled and lit it Thursday night and smoked it continuously until about 1:30am Monday, when it finally went out.

Jonathan brought a Patent K&P Nubian Prince Patent meer that may well have been carved by Captain Peterson himself. I wish I’d taken a photo of the unique mount: it’s a silver threaded screw-in that attaches to the meerschaum mortise in one part and to the amber stem. This type of two-piece construction is actually seen in the 1906 catalog, but it’s so amazingly practical given the fragile nature of both meer and amber.

Glen with PSOI’s “Peter Degenerates,” who will be riding their Harleys into the show next year, or so I was told.
From the right: James Walsh, Lance Dahl, Dan Chasin, A Pete Geek I Did Not Meet, and Glen Whelan.

The Pete Geek Meet, held from noon to 2pm in a tent connected to the back of the main smoking tent, was packed with folks who came to see the treasures Dan, James, Lance and Ken brought.  The new reproduction of the catalog, which should be available from Smokingpipes.com in the near future, features a number of the pipes Ken brought, so I’m going to hold off on his pipes until then to better thank him for his work.

The 2024 PSOI pipe, featuring the Atlantic Blue acrylic stem. Dan & Glen work on this annually,
always coming up with something amazing.

Dan’s interest is in contemporary Petes, and his collection of Supremes is said to be one of the finest in the world. (He’ll be bringing those to the Pete Geek Meet at the Las Vegas International Pipe Show this fall, so make plans to join us there.) He’s promised to share a bit more about his Peterson pilgrimage and some of the pipes he found at the Chicago show in a few weeks.

JAMES

I’m sure to get James and Lance’s pipes mixed up at some point, but they can sort that out in the comments. I’ll begin with what are mostly James’s pipes. He selected three cassettes, and as you can see his big interest is mainly the Late Republic, but with James that’s like saying someone is mainly interested in the past 80 years of baseball history.

Every pipe James brought–and Lance, for that matter–was a revelation.  He had a story for each and I wish I’d recorded every one as well as getting close-up photos of each.

I did get to hear James talk about the 01S, which is his favorite shape.  “It’s very underappreciated,” he said, “which is tragic, since it’s got everything that makes Peterson’s design language awesome.” He showed me three very different sizes of the 01S and I’m in hopes we’ll get a post from him about the 01S collection in the near future.

This amazing oom paul you may know from it’s appearance in the big Peterson book clenched between Captain Peterson’s teeth in a sketch dating from around 1909, if memory serves. I would never have believed that pipe was real had I not seen this one!

Notice the cavalier–stamped HAND MADE.  We know Paddy loved this shape and made more than one, so this is almost certainly work. The free hand is probably also Paddy’s–I wouldn’t have believed it a K&P had I not seen the shank stamp myself.  And ain’t that a loverly amber P-Lip on the long shank?

Here’s another behemoth that’s a one-off. This one is stamped SPECIAL on the bottom of the bowl.

Two more really oversized pieces from the Late Republic. The rustication is almost, but not quite identical. I’d say it was done by the same craftsman. Boy. Love these straight-sided bowls.

I’ve only seen the smaller version of this shape, but as James showed us, it was made in a larger one as well.

This SPECIAL features a really unusual trim ring installed on the P-Lip stem, marking it from the same era that the Galway Briar rings were made.

LANCE

I was afraid of showing you ALL the pipes Lance brought for us to see, knowing as I do that not everyone keeps a defibrilator on standby.

Lance’s collecting interests are in many ways the opposite of James’s, spanning from the company’s earliest days to Early Republic.  Like James, though, he found a number of new pipes to add to his rotation on Glen’s table.

You remember the lion meer on the front cover of the 1896 catalog, I’m sure.  This is the only sighting in the wild we’ll probably ever see.

I talk about the delicate, small Reading Pipes in the commentary to the 1906 catalog. I want to draw your attention to the subtle tapering at the tenon end out and down to the button. Just fabulous.

It’s easy to forget how many meerschaums were made in the Patent era. Then when we see one like this, with its pristine amber, it nearly takes our breath away.

Talk about a component “pocket pipe”! Isn’t this incredible?

I can’t remember when Lance said this apple was made. He’ll tell us in the comments, I hope, but it seems like it was made before 1910.

And what may be one of my very favorites of his collection: the footed dublin. Boy, amber sures goes well with the briar, doesn’t it?

One of the larger dutch billiards seen in the 1896 and 1906 catalog, here dating from what–1894? Lance can tell us. I’ve never seen this Patent shank stamp, “Rugby” style, as Tim Lomprey says.

Thanks to Lance Dahl, James Walsh, & Dan Chasin for
their invaluable contributions to the success of the Pete Geek Meet.
Thanks also to Glen Whelan at Peterson & to Smokingpipes.com

JAMES WALSH CPG has graciously agreed to take up the “Collector’s Corner” column of PPN beginning next Sunday, May .  If you have any new Pete companions or acquisitions you’re excited about, James is the man and he wants to hear from you!

New Submissions Guide:  Send a brief note about why you’re excited about your submission. Please include your name, location in the world, when your collecting interest in Peterson began, any special collecting interests, and occupation.  But be comfortable with what you submit–we want to respect your privacy.  Send your submissions to PeteGeek301@gmail.com.

Scott Forrest CPG, recently acquired this Patent-era banner, which measures 4″ x 40″:

You’ve got to wonder what it was for.  I’m thinking may have been used for a trade fair or exhibition somewhere in Great Britain or possibly Ireland. It’s printed by K&P’s friends Cherry & Smalldridge, who did other printing for the Patent-era Peterson.

…and finally, from that extraordinarily talented Nate Lynn CPG come yet another incredible wall pipe rack, this time for the Dracula series, shaped, of course, as a coffin. Take a look at the Hamilton Dracula tampers mounts. I also love the clear pipe holders–wherever did he get them?–

See you at the show next year!