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MILESTONES: LUNTING TO THE 160th ANNIVERSARY PIPES

Kapp & Peterson being what it is—the world’s longest continuously operating briar pipe factory—there are pipemen who have specialized interests when it comes to building their Peterson collections, if not their rotations.  Sometimes it’s the rugby-shaped COM, sometimes the Patent era, sometimes annual commemoratives like the St. Patrick’s Day.  Aside from my obsession with Shapes 4 and 9, for me it’s the milestones, and the 160^th Peterson Anniversary pipes, which will be released next week (the 9th – 14th), is certainly that.

The term “milestone” used here I owe to to the craftsmen I met on my first pilgrimage to the factory 2013, Tony Whelan, Sr., Joe Kenny, and David Blake in particular.  When they asked me at one point to list my favorite Peterson releases, being the amateur historian I am, and also being fairly uninformed about everything Peterson, I asked them what theirs were.   They thought about it, and then someone said said, “Well, the milestones are . . . ” And then someone else would say, “Oh, and don’t forget about…!” They went back, as I recall now, to the Mark Twain in 1981, and from that point their list became my list.

One or two caveats before we go down this road.  As there are obviously really important shapes that were made before this “Milestones Collection,” a definition is in order.  Going by the heuristic suggested by Whelan, Sr., Blake and Kenny, a milestone release is one either commemorating an event in the past, celebrating an anniversary in the present, or both.  I’ve slightly expanded their original list, but I think they’d approve.

Hallmark Silver Cap & Chain System (1974).

The first and almost completely unknown milestone (at least to us until PPN’s No-Pulitzer-winning Post #213 way back in 2021), was the 1974 Hallmark  Silver Cap & Chain, which was released in what seems to have been fairly small numbers, going by the puff advertising released through K&P’s own Associated Imports here in the US. What is certain is that Peterson did some amazing blast and sterling work (okay, the caps were outsourced) as well as release some great smooths in the 9s and 20s.

Peterson had given some thought to windcaps between the original style shown in the 1906 catalog and the 1974 reissue, figuring out that attaching the chain to the stem was a really bad idea.  And however inconvenient it may be to those who find they relight their pipe more than once or twice, you’ve got to admit the Hallmark Silver Cap & Chain gets a solid 10 for looks.

It was widely reported that the smooth version of the pipe would levitate, so that no pipe rest was ever necessary. Seeing is believing.  Or is it the other way around?

More importantly, though, the company was already thinking hard about their Centenary and how to communicate that milestone to their customer fan base.

Centenary 1875-1975 (1975).

In 1975, K&P celebrated what it then thought of as its centennial year, which was actually the year Charles Peterson was hired by Frederick Kapp to work at the Dublin shop. Kapp—and Peterson, in other words.  Harry Kapp had retired in 1970 but was still casting a paternal eye over the company, which acquired Tennant & Ruttle in 1974, when the company officially dropped the “Kapp” and became the “Peterson Tennant Group.” The company had moved to its new Sallynoggin factory locale in 1972 (?), but was still on the ascendence, making more pipes in its history than ever before.

The Centenary stamp emblem was used in the black & gold aesthetic of the day on this
Maguire & Patterson Irish matchbook as well as gold tone cufflinks.

To celebrate, in 1975 the company released their first serially numbered collectibles, culling pipes from most of the catalog, all high grades and all bearing the distinctive Centenary stamp on sterling bands. These were numbered according to the number of bowls available for each shape, whether in the System or Classic Range, thus, for example, there were 11 4s Systems created.  Other shapes were released in upwards of 100 pipes.

A few Centenary shapes from a prominent collector in Scotland showing the
distinction contrast stain of the release.

If I may be allowed mixing several metaphors, the Centenary pipes created the foundation for subsequent milestones. That is, these were released in a specific year to celebrate a specific important event. These pipes, while known among older Pete Geeks, are now infrequent on the estate market, especially with their distinctive suede gloves, oversized pipe boxes and gold certificates.

Mark Twain (1981 / 1984+).

The first milestone widely known among pipe collectors as well as Peterson enthusiasts was the Mark Twain.  I am a little suspicious that K&P had to travel to the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum to measure Twain’s charred 14B to create their replica, but if that was their story, we’ll let it stand.  Certainly they might have simply opened one of the three or four 1906 catalogs they still possessed to take the pipe’s measurements. Be that as it may, the appearance of the tapered B stem created a sensation in the hobby at the time (despite the fact that it actually been available in the 1950s, even if rarely seen).

The MT was released in a number of ways and a number of grades, from the first release in 1981 of only 400 numbered pipes to a general release in 1984 to subsequent releases, dying down until the Dublin Era when it was again released in 2010 as part of a box set, with the L.Tank (Large Tankard), aka D19.*  For whatever reason, these were never issued with condensers, although none of us back then thought much about it.

Sherlock Holmes Collections, 1987 –2011.

The milestone celebrated here was the centenary of Conan Doyle’s first Holmes adventure, A Study in Scarlet, in 1887. While this may seem like stretching a point, from the first single release of the F/T saddle calabash Original in 1987 to the seven day set of 1989-1991 on through to the final four shapes of the Adventures set in 2011, Peterson was cementing its association with the Great Detective.

The final (and best) series: the Adventures, none of which remains in the catalog.

So easily does ephemeral pipe culture disappear that even when the SH set appeared, most pipemen simply thought “Oh, Sherlock Holmes = gourd calabash = Clever Marketing Ploy” on the part of K&P.  It actually goes much deeper than that, as we have recovered with Basil Rathbone’s 4AB. Even that, however, is not the beginning of the association of the Great Detective with Peterson, as I’ll show you in an upcoming post!

Dublin Millennium (1988).

The Millennium set is one of my favorites, featuring an oom paul and a dublin.  I firmly believe K&P chose these shapes as icons for the Irish marque. That being the case, the Millennium pipes celebrate not only Dublin’s 1000th anniversary,  but the essence of what the Peterson pipe is.  The set was done in Pebble Rustic as well as smooth. It featured a special sterling stamp, was available in P-Li and F/T, and a dedicated two-pipe rest was made for them.

Patent System 1890-1990 (1990). 

The Patent System oom paul and billiard released in 1990 pushed the design envelope for Peterson.  Placing the Patent number stamp on them has caused considerable confusion to later collectors.  I remember one prominent blogger (not me) believing they were actually Patent shapes.  Remember that in 1990 when these appeared, we didn’t have the close-knit internet community to exchange information, and as the years went by, pipemen simply didn’t know what they were.  The billiard remains the largest straight System K&P has ever made, even though it still has a small chamber by normal standards.  The oom paul is such a chin dropper that unless you’re standing up, it’s sometimes hard to smoke it! Interestingly, while the billiard has a prominent screw-in condenser, the oom paul does not!

Peterson Lip Celebration 1898-1998 (1998).

This is a fascinating pipe for two reasons.  First, because it uses a Patent shape as its model, the X160, cleverly (!) renumbered as the X61.  As the X160 B Long, I’ve long contended, it’s the pipe shown being smoked by Thinking Man flatback, which hung over the Grafton Street shop and then was removed to the factory, where it was restored and now hangs:

here the flatback is in the process of being restored.  seen from the front, the viewer can readily see the X160, despite the extraordinarily wide sterling band.

Second, the 160 would later be made as a wonderful reproduction for the POY 2023, the best P-Lip Classic Range pipe I’ve ever companioned:

The Peterson Lip Celebration version, however, was made to celebrate the 3^rd and final patent for the P-Lip. While that was the jumping-off point, it swam pretty far out to sea with a space-fitting or Wear Gap mount normally seen only on DeLuxe Sysatems, a condenser also normally seen only on DeLuxe and Premier Systems, but–obviously (given the narrow shank)–no reservoir.  Whatever.  The results were spectacular. I’ve companioned the set for a number of years and it’s terrific. One of those pipes you wish had become standards in the catalog.

Charles Peterson 140^th Anniversary (2005). 

Charles Peterson’s daughter Solde was, later in life, godmother to the Brady family’s children. Unmarried, when she died she left some of her father’s belongings, including her scrapbook of postcards he sent her when she was a child, his O.1s pipe, and his cane (he was plagued by hip trouble later in life).  They gave the pipe to Peterson in the late 1990s or early 2000s, and in 2005 Peterson made a replica celebrating the company’s 140^th anniversary (counting back to 1865).  They were going to issue it as the POY, but couldn’t source enough bowls, and ended up making about 300.  Inexplicably (to me), they didn’t cut a reservoir for the shank, nor utilize a condenser.  Worst of all (!), they didn’t replicate the classic CP joke, “When stolen, please return to Charles Peterson.” Not if you understand, but when. If briar ever becomes available again in sufficient quantities, wouldn’t it be wonderful to see what Giacomo Penzo and the gang could do with the original version (and joke-engraved band)?

Founder’s Edition (2015).

For Peterson’s 150^th anniversary, the company solicited ideas among employees for a pipe and the favorite was Glen Whelan’s homage to the Patent era’s O.2 shape with a beautifully thick tapered P-Lip stem and double-beaded wide sterling band with a sterling soldered Thinking Man icon.

In 2019, however, Peterson reissued the shape as a full-fledged System, the PUB Pipe, with an acrylic P-Lip saddle stem. . . . and as if that weren’t enough, it was released with a B tapered vulcanite stem as the first PPN Commemorative pipe for 2022!

NEXT:
An Interview with Sykes Wilford, Josh Burgess, and Glen Whelan on the 160th Peterson Anniversary  / 25th Anniversary Smoking Pipes Sets

The Poster
…and this pdf can be used to make your own wall poster:
Peterson-160th-Anni-PR

Thanks to Alan Britt at Smokingpipes for photos
he supposedly took with his phone (!)
of the 160th / 25th Anniversary Set
and to Andy Wike for Laudisi media materials.

Pete Prior CPG sent these photos in of his cabinet with the newly-installed tintacker. You can see he’s been a Pete Geek for quite a while!

(If for some reason you didn’t get a tintacker, I’ve put up the remaining inventory on eBay. Gigi says if they don’t sell I’ll be working at Wal-Mart for a few weeks in the new year. Are you worried?)

CATCH & RELEASE

Linwood Hines CPG has this marvelous 2025 POY blast, new-in-box, available at the price he paid for it–$175.  You won’t find any around with a blast like this one any longer.  You can contact Linwood at lshines3@verizon.net.

LOOKING FOR

Nathan Patterson CPG is looking for a PPN 2022 POY, the very first one. If you’ve got one or know where one can be acquired, contact Nate at nate-patterson@hotmail.com, or at the Texas Pipe Club Co-Op on Discord, where he goes by N8theGr8.  Nathan is a great guy and I’m hoping he’ll find one to put under the Christmas tree at the Patterson household.

Michael Sparks CPG is a bit of a w—er and whining that he needs a 2019 PSOI D19 Large Tank–“the black sandblast spigot with the white pearl acrylic F/T.”  It’s all he ever talks about and I promised if he’d shut up about it I’d run his request here at the end of the post.  If you have one for sale or trade, drop me a line at petegeek1896@gmail.com and I’ll see that he hears about it (he’s barely able to read and write).

Josh Sherif CPG now has a YouTube channel–THE PETERSON PIPER! Check it out and leave comments, all Ye Faithful Pete Geeks!! Is this awesome or what?!