139. The Shape 56 Mystery
Al Jones is THE Peterson 9BC man in my opinion, voicing a love for the shape held by many Pete Geeks, including myself. When I was at the factory in June, I brought three pipes to spin for re-introduction into the catalog: a Patent-era bog oak cutty, a copy of an Éire-era Basil Rathbone 4AB and an Early Republic 9BC. I received arched-eyebrows for the first (which I expected), the sound of crickets for the second (which surprised me), and a request that I leave my Shamrock 9BC for the third (which also surprised me). But while we await for further developments in Sallynoggin, Al recently posted at his regular venue, Rebornpipes.com, on a fascinating alternate shape number for the 9 (aka 9BC, 307, 77 Dunmore). What he has to say, not to mention the lunar blast on his pipe, is so cool that I wanted to re-post it here with his permission. The Shape 56 Mystery by Al Jones If you read any of my posts at Rebornpipes or on the PipesMagazine forum, you’ll quickly learn that I am partial to a few select pipe shapes, primarily the rhodesian. But my all-time favorite shape is the Peterson 9BC, chubby bent billiard, which I learned about several years ago on Mark’s blog. Over the past few years, I’ve acquired several 9BCs in various finishes, including a Shamrock that I featured in the Rebornpipes blog a few months ago. I can usually spy a 9BC, despite the way it may be listed. I found this pipe advertised as a Shape 56 Kapruf, which puzzled me, as I never encountered this shape number. It definitely looked like a 9BC or the modern version, the XL90. However the nomenclature did indeed look like it was a “56.” The 9BC is an Early Republic shape and this pipe was stamped “Made in the Republic of Ireland.”* It’s not too often that I get a thrill from an estate pipe. However working on a shape I’ve never encountered definitely gets me excited. When the pipe arrived, sure enough, it was identical to my 9BCs in all aspects, save one. The button was significantly slimmer than those on either my 9BCs or XL90. The stem had what looked like a factory P stamp. I searched thru my old catalog scans and pored over Mark’s new book, looking for this shape number, but to no avail. I then spent a good bit of time Googling the Peterson Shape 56 and I found only two other examples. One theory I had about the shape was that it was a transition piece, between the 9BC and XL90 [Ed: that is, between the early 1950s and mid 1980s]. One Early Republic Shape 56 Kapruf was sold by Smokers Haven. It had an incredible blast: The other was from an undated eBay ad, and it was advertised as belonging to noted collector, Barry Levin. This one had the two-line MADE IN over IRELAND stamping [Ed.: generally indicative of a US-import pipe,…