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PSA
Wish you’d gotten a 160th SPC Set?
Our web geek CPG Matthew Ramsey
has provided URLs for pipes still available at SPC!
See the end of the blog.

This morning we can at last circle back to the amazing Pete Geek Meet at the 2025 Las Vegas Pipe Show. This morning there are some truly incredible Petes to see from the collection of James Walsh CPG.  While James has a special fondness for the Republic Era, he is also interested in every other era.  There’s enough here to occupy you through two pipes and three cups of coffee, so I’d best be letting you get on with it.

A HAND MADE TWIN-BORE

This one off, from the early to mid-1970s, features a hand cut stem, a horn shank end and the rare twin bore airway that was being experimented with in the 1970s by K&P and some Italian pipe makers.

SELECTIONS FROM THE WALSH 700 SHAPES COLLECTION

It’s difficult to know how many decades the original 700 shape group spans. James has more than I’ve seen from any other collector. Almost all I’ve seen have been stamped “DeLuxe Special.”

You can probably guess which shape from the Dublin era this beefy 722 reminds me of.

XL723 DeLuxe Special

I have a special fondness for the dublin shape, and once let several go which I’ve lived to regret.  This 724 is an XL shape and one of the finest examples I’ve ever seen from K&P in its shaping aesthetic: notice the perfect forward cant and wonderful flare of the bowl and the extra-long shank. I can easily imagine this with a sterling band and P-Lip. It far surpasses what is currently being made.

724 DeLuxe Special.

We sometimes think K&P has been “catalog-bound” to particular shapes. The reality is far more nuanced, as the 700 group shows. This 742, in particular, is a beautiful hybrid owing its inspiration to a number of standard shapes, all wrapped up in the distinctively Irish aesthetic of Peterson design language.

742 DeLuxe Special

744 DeLuxe Special

This 744 DeLuxe Special was an “IRC Exclusive” in the Iwan Reis 1975 catalog, one of a number of collaborative designs from the 1970s between Iwan Reis and Peterson. Like the Dublin Era’s B Shape group, the IRC Exclusives exhibited Peterson willing to step outside the box and look at contemporary styles.

745 DeLuxe Special, an “IRC Exclusive”

772 DeLuxe Special

765 Dublin and London Special

779 DeLuxe Special

I rarely give a second glance at a straight billiard, but this one is one I have. There’s something amazing about its lines, especially the front of the bowl in proportion to the stem length and proportioning of the stem.

SELECTIONS FROM THE WASLH CUMBERLAND SPIGOTS

For whatever reasons lost to history, during the 1990s K&P routinely employed cumberland ebonite for many of their super-high grades. The stock persisted until the early 2000s, I can document, when I special ordered an XL23 A+ grade Lestrade from the shop on Grafton Street. For the most part, these were seen in the broad-flare army spigot with F/T.

1990 HM originating in the 1990 Patent Commemorative Release,
smooth and sandblast

A HM 1991 shape 220 with Cumberland F/T.

A 304, HM 1993.

XL11, aka The Original from the first SH set, HM 1994.

XL12, aka the Baskerville, in an extraordinary Natural sandblast (something I’ve never seen from this era), HM 1994, with the “B” spigot. 

Another XL12 Baskerville, this one with the HM “Scales,” which I believe is from 2000. The height of the Baskerville is always vistually elongated when set in the context of straight grain.

An XL16 Natural, aka The Professor from The Original SH set, HM 1994.

An 87 sandblast with the “B” spigot, HM 1995.

A HM 1995 XL02 with the “B” spigot.

XL23, the Lestrade, from the Return of SH set, HM 1996.

The first Pipe of the Year, from 1997, when it was stamped Limited Edition.

XL24, aka the Milverton from the Return of Sherlock Holmes series, with 1998 HM. I really like the “B”-style bubbled spigot.

SELECTIONS FROM THE WALSH
“YOU-AIN’T SEEN NOTHIN’ YET” COLLECTION

I’ve tried to save the best for last, hoping the site won’t crash by weeding out all the PG-wannabees who didn’t scroll down this far.  Here’s some pipes that have made James reluctant to share his real name, address, or country of origin with me.  Am I that obvious?

Larrigan Hand-Made.

Paddy Larrigan mostly like to carve larger shapes, often with a bit of freehand work. But he could also handle the lathe, as seen here in what is my ALL-TIME FAVORITE Chubby Billiard.  While it has, curiously, an after-market nickel band, it’s also got the never-seen “P.L.” briar signature and a cumberland P-Lip. I’ve never seen another.

Late Paten 161B Oval Shank, Grade 3 Nickel Band.

Éire HM 1929 5SC First Quality DeLuxe.

Shape 5, while not seen in the ephemera of the era, was still being made. It’s a size up from the 4, with about the same shank cant.

Boxed Golf Set, c. 1997, gold bands.

One of the craziest shapes to come out of the Dublin era (and there were some amazing ones) were the Putter and Driver of the Golf set.  These are seriously big pipes–over 7 inches, I think–with super deep chambers.

Swan Neck Dutch Billiard, Late Patent or IFS; Orific Lip.

If you’re looking at this over-the-top Incredible Pete and thinking, “Hmm–hasn’t there been a kind of swan neck Dutch Billiard?” then obviously you’re not reading enough Conan Doyle. No one has ever said The Return of Sherlock Holmes Rathbone is an homage to this shape. Then again, no one has said it’s not.  For my part, I’m of the belief that the Irish Illuminati, who have always been part of the K&P organization, have a secret archive where certain unobtainable shapes and catalogs are stored.

Rathbone Supreme Gold Mounted

Thanks, James, for sharing these with us.

CATCH & RELEASE

Perhaps you’ve forgotten that in many countries around the world, Christmas Day is not only day when tradition offers us the chance for the giving of gifts. There is another, Three Kings’ Day, also called Epiphany, which falls on January 6th and marks the Christian celebration of the Magi (Three Wise Men) visiting visiting the infant Jesus and Holy Family, bringing symbolic gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and concluding the season of Christmas (also called the Twelve Days of Christmas). Celebrated widely in Spain, Latin America, and Hispanic communities globally, it’s  a major gift-giving day for children and, believe it or not, pipe smokers!  Sometimes spouses, girlfriends and family need to be reminded of this. They can leave out tins of pipe tobacco as well as pipes for the pipe smoker in their family. I mention all of this because I have a few pipes that are suitable for such gift-giving and will arrive well in time for Día de Reyes.

If you’re interested in any of these, you can reach me at petegeek1896@gmail.com.  Shipping and tracking are included in the price.

406 Peterson’s Sterling For Shannon Airport. Made in Ireland COM in a circle.

This probably dates to the 1950s, although it might be as late as mid-1960s.  I have yet to find documentation on when K&P quit using the stamp or quit providing pipes for the Duty Free shops at Shannon Airport.  $150.

Tankard P-Lip, New/Old Stock with Period Box & Sock.

Of course the box isn’t right. It almost never is. I saw the “Peterson’s TANKARD” bowl stamp on one of our visits to Sallynoggin. Notice the font of “Peterson’s”: it’s identical with the font used in the late 1940s and 1950s.  It’s a shame the beautiful P-Lip stem is no longer in production, and that there is, in fact, no longer a “Tankard,” the shape now being called a “701” and, without this slender stem, bearing little resemblance to its original.  $150.

605 Kildare Sterling Pot HM 2024.  OMG this has a chamber big enough to put the head of your Chihuahua in. Well, not quite. The 605 was an experimental shape, here today, gone tomorrow, hardly mentioned.  Gone now, but here it is! $110.

160th ANNIVERSARY SETS STILL AVAILABLE

SANDBLAST SUPREME SET: https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/new/peterson/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=709648.

SANDBLAST SUPREME SET: https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/new/peterson/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=709649 

PSB SILVER CAP SET: https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/new/peterson/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=709619

PSB SILVER CAP SET: https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/new/peterson/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=709655

NATURAL SET: https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/new/peterson/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=709595 

NATURAL SET: https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/new/peterson/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=709598

Matt Ramsey, thank you!

April 4, 2010 – December 17, 2025
“A dog is better than a man; he loves and does not judge.”
–Abba Poeman