If you’re a Pete Geek and don’t know the name Sandra Bondarevska, it’s time to learn it. Sandra is a Latvian journalist who lived in Dublin for decades, along with over 20,000 other members of the Latvian diaspora–which is said to number about half a million souls worldwide. The global diaspora first emerged when the Soviets rolled into Latvia to reoccupy it in 1944—which is when Charles Peterson’s brother Conrad and his little family fled across the icy waters of the Baltic in an open boat. The next wave of the diaspora occurred following the European Union accession in 2004, which prompted many Latvians to emigrate in pursuit of better work and educational opportunities.
Sandra’s help with The Peterson Pipe: The Story of Kapp & Peterson was instrumental in documenting Charles Peterson and his family. It was through her research that the Brady family, who held in trust Peterson family photographs and documents, as well as many personal effects of Charles and Annie Peterson, got in contact with K&P, to donate several items.
While we know and love Charles Peterson as the inventor of our favorite pipe and entrepreneur of our favorite brand, Sandra’s book Petersoni Īrijā (2019), which appeared in English as The Petersons in Ireland (2024), documents the the cultural importance of Charles, his daughter Isolde Peterson, and cousin Konrad Peterson to Latvia, Europe, and the world. I’ll be returning to their importance on System Day 2026 in September, but for now I wanted to catch everyone up to what Sandra’s been doing in the meantime.
In January of 2021, Sandra, alongside director Baiba Gaigra, established Sleides, which means “Rails” in English, as an amateur Latvian diaspora theater group. Their purpose is an important one: to maintain a Latvian cultural space in the world for the community living abroad by giving performances in Latvian and English.
Note that copy of the 1896 K&P catalog reprint under Charles Peterson’s arm and he escorts the lovely Mary Regan across the street.
Sandra wrote a state adaptation of her historical triptych on the Peterson family in 2024, and has directed it for diaspora audiences in Dublin (2023 and 2025), in Riga and Birmingham (2024), and Stockholm (2025). She hopes to do a repeat performance in Dublin in 2027 when all the actors are again available. In the meantime, here’s an article from Baltic-Ireland.ie (March 3, 2025) reproduced with Sandra’s permission, and fun photos from the Nassau Street Peterson shop and environs of the cast and director courtesy photographer Julia Sereda.
A Photo Shoot at Peterson’s Pipe Shop
Turns into an Event
by Vita Žagare
Janis Vecozols as Charles Peterson and Ieva Daize as Annie Peterson
The photo shoot of the characters from the Sliedes theater production of Sandra Bondarevska’s The Petersons of Dublin at the Peterson pipe shop on Nassau Street on March 1st was not originally intended to be a public event. Thanks to the responsiveness of the store management and cast, however, it turned out to be exactly that.
Behind the books and meerschaum cigar holder: Sandra Bondarevska, the author of the book and play
To celebrate Charles Peterson’s birthday on March 4th, the actors and directors of the Latvian theatre group Sliedes chose to go to the shop at 48-49 Nassau Street in full costume and make-up.
Evan Patkovskis plays Conrad Peterson, Charles younger cousin and Indra Jakobsone plays Mary Regan, whose house Charles Peterson was boarding in when he met his future wife Annie Forde.
As the purpose of the play is to explore the legacy of the Peterson family, the theatre’s photographer Jūlija Sereda decided it would be fun to do a photo shoot in a relevant context—viz., the Peterson shop!
The play is adapted from Sandra’s book about Charles and Annie Peterson, his daughter Isolde and his cousin Konrad, and some of Konrad’s descendants came to the shoot with previously unpublished documents and things belonging to Konrad’s, including a K&P meerschaum cigar holder.
Looking over Conrad Peterson’s Land Register for the house he owned in Riga.
Jean and Brendan Murphy, Konrad Peterson’s descendants, showed everyone some of Konrad’s passports issued after Latvia became an independent state, as well as Land Register extracts for the house that he owned in Riga, Pārdaugava, on Kalnciema Street. The Murphys, it turned out, had kept a number of Konrad’s documents without realizing their full importance.
A German tourist with “Charles Peterson,” actor Janis Vecozols.
The unexpected arrival of a group of German tourists, who hadn’t expected to see a group of people from the early 20th century milling about in the store, also turned out to be fun.
Vecozols (left) and Fiori (right)
Store manager and photographer Giangi Fiori ushered them through, telling them as a joke that actor Jānis Vecozols was the great-great-grandson of Charles Peterson. The Germans immediately rushed to have their pictures taken pictures with him, causing a lot of merriment when Fiori finally confessed to the ruse.
Ieva Daize just exudes everything I’ve read about Annie Peterson.
Sandra Bondarevska said she hopes there will be other occasions Kapp & Peterson can collaborate with the theatre group in promoting the legacy of Charles Peterson and his family.*
All photos courtesy of photographer Julia Sereda.
Article from Baltic.ie reprinted in translation
with authorization by Sandra Bondarevska
* Mark: For my part, I’m hoping for a performance in English. Tell me when and tell me where, and I’ll be there!
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR
A fresh release of the amazing Short Army pipes occurred unannounced on SPC site, with an email announcement from SPEu of the release on 7/10. I know several PGs who came away with two or even three of these superbly mounted pipes with the best vulcanite P-Lip stems seen since the late 1990s.
The B10: What a looker!
I looked in vain on the SPEu site for an XL90 or an 05 in the red sandblast after coming far too late to the game, hearing from friends that SPC had released theirs several days previously. I don’t know if this is a new marketing strategy, as one friend theorized, designed to bypass codgers (ahem, like me) who rely on email rather than social media, but if so, my young friends, do shoot me an email! Have mercy on the old guy.
A new edition of the Archive Collection There was no email notification when SPC dropped the new batch of Archive Collection pipes, either, saving me considerable expense, as I would certainly have jumped on the Molly Malone / River Collection B shapes. SPEu did sent out an email on 7/21. Boy oh boy oy boy they look grand in the rustic with the original champagne acrylic stems!
Included in the release where the POY 999, the Writers Collection, the Adventures of SH Moran (a really scarce and bold shape), and from the Amundsen from the Great Explorers Collection. Talk about rarities!
The 356 Premier Revival small batch appeared as part of the normal SPC releases on 7/30, with the SPEu release occurring on 7/31. These are really exciting, and I’ll talk about them at length in the next post.
Finally, I couldn’t resist throwing in this e-poster of the 160th Annniversary lighter, which has been in my folder for a while now. For me, this sterling lighter is one of the ultimate Pete Geek accessories. It’s out of stock at SPC, but there’s still a few at SPEu if you missed out.
Intellectual property of Kapp & Peterson
reproduced with their gracious permission.
ALSO
a big thank you to for sharing gorgeous photography
done by the SPC and SPEu teams. They made the Rear View Mirror sparkle.
Cheyen Lloyd CPG sent two fabulous Petes I’d like to share with you–
This first is the only paneled Churchwarden I’ve seen, with a MADE IN IRELAND in a circle COM:
The second is another marvelous creation by Peterson’s artisan Austin Quinlan, a small pickaxe with an amazing horn shank:
NEXT WEEK:
Celebrating the 356 Revival
brought to you by
rebmemerdnadnuoranrut
Were the Jades that I saw earlier this week on the SPEU site a limited release?