60. Peterson 2017 Product Catalog & A Well-Kept Secret
And here it is – the 2017 Peterson Pipe Collection catalog! Download it, save it, pass it along to other Pete Nuts—that’s what it’s for. You’ve seen official photos of most of the new lines a few blogs back, although I’ve been told there will be minor adjustments made to the final finish on the Clontarf and Summertime lines.
If you’re particularly anxious to own one of the pipes in the catalog above, Yiorgos Manesis at James Fox / PipeDivan has the following in stock, although not all of them will be listed on the website until Monday:
2017 POTY Smooth (filter or no filter) – €211.38
2017 POTY Rustic (No filter) – €178.86
2017 Summertime B10 (No filter) – €113.82
Newgrange Spigot XL02, 87, 999 (no filter) and XL90, 106, XL11 (filter) – €187
Waterford XL22 (Filter) – €113.82
Let me caution you that one or two may be gone, as Tom Carrolan wrote Friday morning asking me to pass along his benediction: “In the spirit and tradition that (apparently) has made America Great Again — Go ahead, I’ve got mine (paid for and shipped)!”
You can get in touch with Yiorgos at yiorgos@jamesfox.ie .
In the next few blogs, I’ll be taking a close-up look at the individual lines beginning with the POTY, but for now, take a look at the catalog, then proceed.
You looked at the catalog, right?
The 2017 Peterson Products catalog is the first-ever ephemera appearance of the Peterson plateaux free hand pipe. Some might say this is not a “classic” Peterson shape. In a sense, they’re right. But it is, nevertheless, historic Peterson, and we’re going to tell you all about it in The Peterson Pipe Book.
For now, I’ll only say that it first appeared over forty years ago, and is the only Peterson pipe to be made from plateaux briar. Ever.
Okay, so I’ll tell you just a little more. While it’s called the “Plateau” range in the new catalog, the shape has had two names over the years. Here in the U.S. and in the U.K., it’s usually called a “Plato,” but in Italy and some parts of Europe it’s known as the “Barktop.” The former is a pun, the latter a description.
While each pipe is one-of-a-kind and hand-turned, most of them share house-pipe proportions, with routine chamber diameters stretching from 22 to 24 mm. They are typically seen in a high-grade natural finish and one or two lower grades with darker finishes.
P-Lip vulcanite mouthpieces were the rule until the last generation of these pipes, when a few were seen with acrylic fishtails. While most have the imbedded aluminum (or sometimes brass on the natural) P on the mouthpiece, some of the dark pipes are hot foil P stamped.There has never been a shape number stamp on this range, only the arched forktail PETERSON’S over DUBLIN.
Usually the uncut burl is exposed at both rim and shank, although there have been a smaller number of pipes with a sterling band at the shank and burl only on the rim, and the new Plateau range will include these as well.
There have been so few of these pipes over the years that Peterson has never felt the need to advertise them, kind of like the Straight Grain range, which wasn’t mentioned in Peterson ephemera until 1997, although it had been around since the 1940s.
Right now, Kris at Black Swan Shoppe Ltd in North Yorkshire, Surrey (www.thebackyshop.co.uk ) has almost 30 of these rarities in stock at really good prices. Strange to think, but he probably has the world’s largest cache of Peterson Platos. “I absolutely love the Platos,” he wrote me yesterday, “which is why we have so many. I have to order them over a year in advance so I tend to go a bit daft!”* Kathy over at Cupojoes also has a reputation in the past for carrying these pipes, so you might look for them at her site as well in the coming months.
The ones Kris has in stock are not the new generation, which will all feature the newly-designed acrylic P-Lip and fishtail mouthpieces. What this means is that Kris has the largest inventory of Platos with vulcanite mouthpieces we’ll ever see again. I’ve included a few photos here (all the ones with the Peterson pipe tool are Kris’s), but I strongly urge you to check them out for yourself, and if you’re an Old Boy with a passion for the vulcanite, now is your chance.
While everyone’s smoking experience is unique, I have companioned a natural Plato, P-Lip, for several years. I like to smoke all evening and don’t like to reload my pipe, which isn’t a problem with a Virginia flake. But for a two to three-hour Balkan smoke, I have to turn to much larger chambers, and the plateaux free hand delivers: cool, dry, full-flavored. My Plato (a last generation) also has a System reservoir, although I don’t think most do. Kris can tell you if any of his are bored with a System reservoir.
Highly recommended for those looking for a large-chamber Peterson smoking experience.
The Thinking Man Smokes A Plato Pipe
Photo Credits:
Courtesy Kris at Black Swan Shoppe, Ltd.
Yiorgos at James Fox
AlPascia.it
Smokingpipes.com
*If you’re in the U.S. and want to buy a pipe from Black Swan, don’t get confused by the somewhat difficult checkout instructions. You can just use your credit card.