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“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing–absolutely nothing–half so much worth doing as simply messing about with boats.” –Ratty to Mole, The Wind in the Willows

I have taken liberties in the banner with Kenneth Grahame’s immortal words from one of the greatest books of all time, The Wind in the Willows (1908) to introduce two Thinking Men who agree wholeheartedly with Ratty’s words.  Ken has messed about with boats since he was big enough to get into one and his boat is within a stone’s throw from his house.  Fletch is 100% US Navy with an accent on naval archaeology and history.  While he was borned and raised in the Missouri-Kansas river valley, he needed to escape and ventured out to join the Navy, although rumor has it he is again in the river valley of his birth–probably messing about with boats.

This morning we have two threshold, nearly-Patent era pipes, one from Ken and one from Fletch, each pipe so extraordinary that it seemed appropriate for us to stop, drop, & drool over them.

A Liminal 1890 Patent System.

This is a brilliant medium-sized System in Charles Peterson’s “Round or Ball-Shaped Bowls” chart.

Notice first that this Shape 15 is in a KAPP BROS. case. That era of the company ran from 1881-1893, when Charles Peterson was more or less CEO – General Manager – Shop Manager, and Alfred and Christian Kapp were still in their teens.

It reminds me a lot of Shape 18 on p. 34 of the 1896 catalog, but there’s a problem: Ken’s pipe measure 7 inches in length, while the 18 is only 5 1/2.  I couldn’t find anything else that resembles it so nearly, but remember this is an 1890 pipe. So who knows?

The next remarkable thing is this shank stamp–one I’ve never seen: “REGTd [registered] 12393 90.” And take a look at the other side’s shank stamp:

I have no idea what kind of “protection” was legally available, but it’s so amazing to see a “PROTECTED over KAPP BROs in an ellipse. How many of such Petes can have survived? A dozen? Six? Just this one?

And one reason it survived, I’m sure, is its case.  Think back on pipes in antique mall, junk stores, even tobacco shops that you’ve seen.  Every single one in a case, I’m thinking, was set in a special place and had a higher price.  The case meant prestige.  The case meant “this is a special pipe.”  So when those pipes in the old codger’s smoking drawer get pulled out, his great-granddaughter, given the odious job of cleaning out his rooms at the retirement village, is going to toss all the cruddy, lava-encrusted, green-buttoned pipes straight into the lawn bag.  Trying not to touch them (“Eww,” she thinks). Then she feels back to the back of the drawer and comes up with this pipe. In a case.  She opens it and reads: MADE IN IRELAND.  She sees the plush.  Takes the pipe out and rubs her fingers on the material.  “Glow up, bruh!” she thinks, “Where’d Grandy get this?” She sets it aside and takes it home.

Next point of interest: the hallmarks run down (in a vertical line), not across, as we’re used to seeing.  It’s true K&P has kept the vertical HM orientation for their gold bands, but when did the sterling move from vertical to horizontal?  Special No Prize for the first correct answer. . . .

I’m looking at the pipe, then back at the case, and thinking that maybe the Space-Fitting (or Wear-Gap) Stem may not have been a feature in the very first design.  We’d need more examples, of course, but the case seems to fit this pipe almost exactly. Maybe brother Ken can clear this up for us: is there room for that Wear Gap, Ken?

Finally, just when you think we’ve seen it all, take a look at this Great Mother of all Peterson Tenons. Three steps. Oops, wait, there’s more:

There were four steps. The fourth was a bone tenon screw-in extension, now lost.  Can you even imagine?  I imagine if our buddies at K&P are looking at this–especially Jono (Jonathan Fields) they’re thinking total fecking nightmare. But for us collectors, it’s a sigh of Oh my, wouldn’t THAT be lovely?”  or words a little more muscular.

A Liminal Patent Dutch Billiard.

Fletch has long been interested in antique pipes, as you now know if you’ve visited his new blog, The Hawsepipe Antique Pipes–and if you haven’t, stop and check it out and hit the “subscribe” button.

When Fletch got the pipe, he wrote me, sending photos so we compare notes on what, exactly, he was looking at.  It had a few surprises.  The first, Fletch had already investigated:

Fletch writes, “The case no longer has its label–“

[Labels were always attached in the upper half of the case, to remind the smoker of where he bought the pipe and were, presumably, to buy more.]

Fletch: “–the silver is hallmarked by Henry Perkins but has no date or assay marks. This hallmark was only used by Perkins from approximately 1880-90, when it was changed to Henry Perkins & Sons. So it falls well before the 1896 System Patent. Perkins was a well-known mounter in London who mounted pipes for many houses, including Barling. So it’s conceivable that Kapp Bros. or early K&Ps were mounted by a professional silversmith – pipe mounter. Also, if that orific button isn’t a Charles Peterson I’ll eat the case!”

I had to agree entirely with Fletch’s judgement: this is a Charles Peterson dutch billiard, and it’s got a Charles Peterson orific button.  Compare it to the beautiful example that Gary Malmberg below that that he brought to our book launch back in 2019. He didn’t think the stem was original.  I realize the briar Grade 3 has an SC or shouldered-short stem, but it’s too similar to Fletch’s pipe for me to think it otherwise:

On to the next bit of fun: “There’s an 1890 patent stamp on the back of the stem,” says Fletch:

Now, go back to the bowl and look at it carefully. What strikes you as out-of-the-ordinary? You said–bowl coloring!  Coloring discs were part of every meerschaum lover’s accessories for decades.  The proper use of these discs is described  both the 1896 and 1906 “Chat with the Smoker” tutorials.  They  even had meerschaum coloring contests well into the first decade of the 20th century.

But why did the original companioner leave the first coloring disc in so long? Normally, when the pipe was beginning to color, a larger (deeper) disc was inserted, to keep the color more uniform as it progressed up the sides of the bowl.

Did the Pete Geek simply abandon his pipe?  It’s so obvious it’s been perfectly colored, then bang. Or almost–the upper part is a bit tawny. Did he die? Lose the pipe? Did his wife leave him flat in Philly? Or more likely, did someone steal it from him on a riverboat cruise down the Mississippi to see his old friend Sam Clemens?

I asked Fletch these questions and he answered, “I’m guessing the pipe was abandoned when the owner decided he wanted more capacity vs. a pretty pipe. I’d like to think he lost it while excavating Mound 1 at Sutton Hoo in the south of England.  I’m thinking he was an antiquarian as well. There’ve been load of bookswritten about Sutton Hoo.  There was also pretty good movie made about it 2021 with Ralph Fiennes called The Dig, a fairly accurate telling of Basil Browns discovery of the ship burial. A great movie for pipe spotting, as 1930’s British academia was lousy with pipe smokers. There’s been hundreds of digs at Sutton Hoo since then and it’s proven to be one of the most significant Anglo Saxon sites in all of Great Britain.” 

And speaking of digs, look at the heel of the pipe:

Fletch: “There is a repair plug in the heel, so at some point some overly-aggressive poking with a  Gratis Pipe Tool  has taken its toll and had to be repaired.” I confess it’s hard for me to conceive there were people who could repair meershaums. Peterson, I suppose. And of course, they were quite a bit more expensive than briars.

There is one final surprise: “I was looking at the meer last night and thumbing through the 1906 catalog. I think the meer is a 1 rather than a 4. The shank is shorter and less acute than a 4″:

Fletch may very well be right. For my own part, I’m inclined to think the meer is a 5.  Here’s the 4 in front of the 1:

The 1, I’ve always thought, has a considerably larger stummel.  But, as Fletch points out, it does have a more moderately angled shank–which it shares with the 5.  And here’s the 5 in front of the 4:

The bowls of the 5 and the 4 are identical in size. It’s the canting of the shank that’s different.

Fletch: “Here you are, fours of all varieties, A, S, B, AB. Deluxe and standard. Meer and Briar. Smooth and blasted. As diverse a group as you could ask for!”

Thanks to
Ken & Fletch
for sharing photos of these remarkable pipes
and documenting the threshold between Kapp Bros. and Kapp & Peterson!

ANTIQUE COLLECTION SETS TRADE OFFER

A fellow Pete Geek has contacted me with an unusual offer.  He wants to trade two unsmoked Antique Collection sets, the 1996 quartet and the 2009 pair seen below for the complete 2007 River Collection.  If you would like to write to him about such a trade, you can contact him through me at 1896PeteGeek.gmail.com and I’ll forward your email to him.

The River Collection (2007) was another extremely ambitious collection from the Dublin era, which we’ll probably never see the likes of again.  Six pipes! Can you imagine?   Fortunately, K&P had a plan for all the unused bowls: they filtered down through a variety of other commemoratives and lines–the Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, even Donegal Rocky.  These were medium-sized stummels with fishtail stems and rolled (stamped) engravings of Celtic waves. Yet even the original collection (so plentiful was well-grained briar just 18 years ago) was issued in a variety of grades.  Here’s the lowest tier of the smooth grade, in a red gloss.  Just gorgeous: