Some fun this morning! First, a celebration of the awesome new small batch 356 Revival. Then, Ken Sigel has a Pete Geek Challenge for us, with an Ephemera Prize for the winner. . . so on with the show–
Cheyen Lloyd CPG added this beautiful smooth 356 Revival to his rotation.
The 356 Revival dropped at SPC Thursday, 7/30 and at SPEu on Friday, 7/31. Andy Wike at SPC told me 150 pipes were sent to SPC, and Federica Bruno at SPEu said they received 50 for a total of 200 pipes. It’s the latest release, incidentally, in the Charles Peterson Collection.
My friend Josh Sherif, The Peterson Piper, sent out a great post on YouTube the day of the release, which is a great introduction to today’s celebration:
Before we get going, remember PPN is an educational blog, not a commercial venue. PPN’s neither a business nor a brand and has no customers. I say this to remind you that there’s a commercial reason Peterson marketed this new pipe as the “356 Revival,” viz., there’s not too many people who want to know the long and fascinating backstory behind the new pipe. Most folks, I’m sure, are content to go with “hey, this is a reincarnation of an old Patent shape,” but it’s actually more fun and more complex than that, and if you love the System, I hope you got one or will think about getting one as there’s still some blasts and rusticated examples on offer.
WHY “356”?
Let’s begin at the end and go backward. The Premier 356 Revival uses the exact same stummel (the bowl + shank piece of briar) that was used on the POY 2025 02BB:
This type of thing has been standard practice with K&P since 1890, but you’ve got to keep your eyes open to see it.The 356 Revival is is actually a new System shape. Not a new number but a System that’s never been made in this shape (with this stummel) before.
So how can this be a “356 Revival” I hear you ask. Simple. It is through its pedigree, which can be traced as follows:
Shape 356 is first seen in the 1937 K&P catalog and shortly afterwards in the 1939 Rogers Imports Catalog. Recall the “300” shape group has always been for Standard and Premier grades:
Notice there’s a 306 (2nd grade / sterling mount) as well as a 356 (3rd grade / nickel mount).
A 356 IFS
Time for another cup of coffee . . .
Now, as you know if you’ve read the “Deep Dive” into the 02BB POY, the 356 in its first-grade iteration as a De-Luxe, goes back to the Patent System shape 02:
In the 1940s the 02 went on a diet or got into shape (whichever metaphor you like best) and the back of the shank was shaved off. Same bowl height, same chamber geometry. But now a svelte 02 and 02BB which would return in 2025 as the Pipe of the Year.
“So why,” I hear you ask, “didn’t they call the 356 Revival an 02 System?” Tsk tsk, I told you to get another cup of coffee. That number was reassigned in the catalog in the late 1970s. Here’s a recent example:
POP QUIZ
Question: So what should we call this shape, which is after all the same as the 02BB but in a System and therefore was part of the shape group 02 / 306 / 356 in the 1937 catalog?
Answer: The 356, of course.
INTERMISSION
Bob Tot CPG sent me these photos and I had to ask “What’s that sandblast laying on? Cake?” “Yes indeed,” came back the reply. “The minute I saw the sandblasts I thought of my wife’s Denver Buttermilk Chocolate Sheet Cake. Do not tell her I snuck photos of my pipe on the cake or I’ll be sleeping in the dog’s house tonight.”*
He also send along these detail photos, which I thought were gorgeous:
On with the show—
THE STEM
The button on the new 356 is super comfy and is, interestingly enough for the Pete Geek, the same as that used on the CP 308 Premier System in 2023.
THE CONDENSER
Yes, there it is in all its glory, the ultimate in System engineering–the condenser–sometimes confusingly called the tenon and in ancient Peterson history “the chimney” by factory craftsmen. . .
This Rua was snagged by Josh Sherif CPG. It’s really difficult for me to get a good photo of the Rua finish, but these stock photos show just how marvelous the Rua is … in the right light!
There’s one more thing—and if you need to get some breakfast so your head quits spinning, I understand. You can come back to it later. But it’s important, so don’t forget.
Despite all the comments I hear about the current rustication, I’m not alone in thinking this is really a fun, gnarly finish. I don’t know who ended up with this one, but it’s a good representative of what’s being done.
AN UPDATE TODAY ON DATING BY HALLMARK DATES (!)
The rule of thumb for dating a sterling Pete has always been look for the hallmark letter. That’s the year the pipe was made. We need to update this rule today. Here’s what happened and how I got interested in it:
Whenever someone receives his Certified Pete Geek certificate from PPN, there’s a hallmark letter on it corresponding to the year. In 2025, following the Company of Goldsmiths of Dublin Assay Office chart, the certificate HM letter was accordingly changed to a capital “O.” But something a little strange happened: the new Petes that made their way to my studio had capital “N” hallmarks. “Not to worry,” I thought, “just a little extra silver left over from 2024. This has happened before.” Now 2026 is here, and low and behold:
Yup, your eyes are seeing the letter “N” for 2024 once again. I went to the Assay Office again, thinking I’d missed something. Nope. Here’s the explanation, and you may want to pass it along to fellow Peterson enthusiasts:
“This happens,” Josh Burgess at Laudisi told me, “because the silver gets hallmarked after it arrives at the factory when it is first purchased, rather than when it gets called up to go on a pipe. The upside to this is that we don’t end up waiting on the assay office. The downside is that you sometimes have more silver than you need in a given size for a particular year.”
If you go back to the first years of PPN, you’ll know that waiting for the Assay Office has been a major pain in the elbow for Peterson. You’ll read in posts about the Pipe of the Year that POYs were routinely delayed until late summer because K&P was waiting on the silver from the Assay Office. The single year Peterson decided to roll out the POY in January of the year was difficult for hobbyists (and later for Peterson) because the silver was hallmarked for the previous year. Cripes. Now of course it’s simply the tradition for the POY to come out right about now.
Alright, you’re free to go. Unless, of course, you’re ready for Ken Sigel’s challenge:
Every Pipe Has a Story
by Ken Sigel CPG
Those of you who know me know that I am not a pipe dealer. I’m just an unabashed, Pete Geek addicted to early Petes. Yes, I do dabble in cleaning up and refurbishing tired Petes to sell on eBay. I guess to some outside the PG world I appear as being obsessed with and constantly buying and selling grungy old pipes.
And so, begins the story of the mystery 999. John, a member of our off on and frequently infrequent Wednesday night poker game called me to say there’s a “huge pipe collection” for sale. It belonged to Mary Claire a recently widowed woman in town. By She had worked with my wife and attended the same church. According to John, Mary spoke highly of my wife Sarah – how she was a great leader and scientist, always pleasant, and just a great person to work for.
Back to the pipe deal. I would be “willing to take these off your hands, not much here, maybe I will be able to pass them along to some friends” and such shrewd commercial banter filled my mind. I envisioned myself the smooth pipe trader finding amazing pipes for pennies on the dollar.
Before capitalizing on the pipe deal of the century, I had to accept that 1) I am terrible at previously described tactics and 2) trying to fleece a recently widowed friend of my wife had bad idea written all over it. I did briefly recall being referred to a one who is “frequently wrong – never in doubt”. Yet after careful consideration and reflection over an entire 3-to-5-minute period I quickly called Mary Claire.
She was very friendly, recognized who I was, and then while I was contemplating my kill shot line, she smoothly seized the upper hand. She told me how her husband often bought all sorts of pipes while at various duty stations during his Coast Guard career. “Why he had 11 in his collection! If you look on eBay some of these used pipes fetch $100 or more dollars each.”
The chances of a windfall (steal) have now decreased exponentially. There were only a few pipes involved and the seller already had developed a sense of their worth.
Only 11 pipes, a paltry amount by any measure. I am firmly opposed to counting pipes in a collection. It must be avoided at all costs. It leads to only bad things. 1. Admitting one has an acute case of PAD (pipe acquisition disorder). 2. Having to lie in response to “so exactly how many of those pipes do you have anyway?” 3. Or worse both. Realize you have PAD and are now caught lying to your spouse.
Recognizing that going further had nothing but bad written all over it, I immediately arranged to drive over to her house and see the collection. In these days of online and digital everything I rarely write checks, but to further the bad track this enterprise had already taken, I grabbed my check book and headed out the door.
When I got there the “collection” was assembled on her dining room table. My instincts proved correct. There were the pipes, a Dr Grabow, Yellow dot, Medco, Missouri Meerschaum etc. However, I did spy a tired rusticated 314, a 312, and the 999. The 314 and 312 were old, well used, and with heavily oxidized stems. The 999 was filthy, to say the least. Lava, excess cake, a brown stem, you name it – ugh.
When I picked up the 999 Mary Claire’s eyes lit up. “That was his favorite. He smoked it all the time. He had it with him all the time.”
“Really?”
“He got that in Ireland when he stopped there while on the North Atlantic Ice Patrol. He served on the ice breaker Northwind. They put it to Cork for logistics and repairs. He found it in a small pipe shop over there. Said it was some sort of limited edition and he paid too much.”.
My wiseguy self almost asked, “All the time you say. Too bad he never had time to clean it.”.
Nevertheless, in a moment of astonishing restraint, I said “I see”, trying to affect serious empathy while concurrently trying to plan my escape with none of these pipes and no change to my bank account. I put the 999 back on the table.
As I set it down, Mary asked, “So would $400 be a fair price? I have seen pipes go for lots more on eBay.”.
I thought about my wife’s comments when I told her about possibly buying the collection. “Oh, that would be nice. Mary Claire’s a wonderful person and it would mean so much to her that it goes to someone who appreciates them.”
“Sure” I said. A batch of extremely low value pipes indeed, but a chance to move pipe collecting a bit to the good side of the family ledger.
Fast forward, I as any pretense of commercial acumen evaporated Mary Claire and I settled on $700 for the lot. She thanked me and seemed very happy. I now had to figure out how to recoup at least some of my expenses. I priced the batch at between $35 and $60 and got the word out to members of the Hartford Reading Society (an informal group that meets to smoke pipes, read tobacco tin labels and liquor bottle labels).
I managed to sell all the pipes except the 999. It was just too filthy. So now I had a grungy, nothing special 999 for which I had grossly overpaid.
It sat on the bench for some time until I just decided to go after it and see what was under the grunge. Surprisingly it cleaned up relatively easily. Along with never being cleaned, it looked like it had only rarely been smoked. Then came the surprises. Yes, it was a 999 Killarney alright. Yet it had a gloss black finish with a stem and shank decorated with metals bands. The fishtail stem was for a 9mm filter. There was a forked P on the stem that didn’t survive the cleaning.
So, here is the question:
who in the PG family has seen this permutation? Any ideas as to when this was made?
The ephemera prize:
Rules: To enter, send your answer to kgsigel@gmail.com.
Jonathan Estes sent photos of this BRADLEY shape 175, with a MADE IN ENGLAND stamp. Notice the bone tenon extension and the HAND MADE stem stamp:
Jonathan and I are wanting to know if anyone out there–James?–has any information about this line. It’s obviously a high grade. Oh, and notice the white “B” on the top of the stem. I’m curious where the line name came from, for one thing. The three digit shape number is also something I’ve not seen on a MIE Pete…
REARVIEW MIRROR
This past Friday I found a wonderful surprise in my in-box: the fourth Nassau Street edition has been released (see Posts #188, #254, and #285). For those unacquainted with this special release line, Adam O’Neil, formerly of SPEu, would almost annually conjure up something special from high atop his perch on Nassau Street in Dublin.
This year’s release consists of 27 of the X61 P-Lip Celebration pipes, one of the most unusual of all Peterson releases which you can read about in Post #355.
SYSTEM DAY IS COMING SEPT. 3RD
Mike Lohsl of Chesapeake Pipe & Cigar has already begun advertising his shop’s celebration—join if you can. He’s got some Pete swag I’ve never seen that you don’t want to miss out on.
Many thanks to K&P for permission
to use their intellectual property.
* I have been an enthusiast of buttermilk chocolate cake since reading about it in S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders in grade school. I told Bob that, and it turns out he went to my elementary school and had the same librarian who read it to his class as well (he’s two years younger than I). He sent me the recipe, which I have, in turn, sent to my wife, who just may… I hope… make me one:
CATCH & RELEASE
First issue 1979 9K Gold Spigot 03 Natural Facing Mount, unsmoked, with a period box and sock. I’ve seen the 05 a few times, but never the 03. I’ve talked to a few friends, so you guys know the story, but it’s beyond my means & needs a home before Gigi finds out! If you’re interested, drop me a line at petegeek1896@gmail.com for photos. $550 to fellow Pete Geeks, Friends & Family PayPal.
“The cake is a lie”