Commemoratives

 

PSAs

The Chicago Pipe Show will be held May 1^st – 4^th. On Friday May 2nd, Glen Whelan, Managing Direction at Peterson, will join the Pete Geeks and Pipe Smokers of Ireland for a “Pete Geek Meet” from 12 to 2 in the secondary SMOKING tent.

At 2pm I’ll be presenting “‘A Perfect Pipe’: Peterson’s 1906 Catalog” to coincide with the book launch of the catalog’s restoration.  The new book will be available at the show and I’m hoping through Smokingpipes.com as well.

Because this is such an important year for Peterson, I encourage you to think about attending the show, and especially if you collect or companion Patent and IFS-vintage Petes, as they’ll be one focus of the Pete Geek Meet.  Another focus will be found by reference to the following newspaper clipping:

This is the 160^th anniversary of Kapp & Peterson—dating back to George and Frederick Kapp’s shops in London’s Soho district.  Have you ever wondered how 1865 was determined as the founding date? Back in the 1990s the CEO of Peterson, Tom Palmer, engaged a Dublin journalist to write a history of the company. That man indicated to Tom that 1865 was the oldest reference to be found. Unfortunately he died and his notes apparently went with him.  When we were doing our own research, your very own blogger found the date in the Clerkenwell News, a London newspaper.

So you see, you owe it to yourself to be at the Chicago Show for this wonderful occasion.  I don’t know if Glen is bringing a green birthday cake with 160 candles or not, but we’ll figure something out!

 

THE 2025 ST. PATRICK’S DAY PIPES

 

This morning, to get things started, is about the imminent first release of 2025, the St. Patrick’s Day pipes.  Per Andy Wike at SPC, “we’re planning on launching them Tuesday, January 28th at 6:00pm Eastern Time.” He’s also sent us product photos of all the shapes and finishes, which form an extensive gallery below and will give you a chance to explore, appreciate, appraise and evaluate just in case you need to add one or more to your rotation.  Josh Burgess at Smokingpipes recently told me that in addition to the regular St. Patrick’s Day, Carroll of Carrollton, Halloween, Pipe of the Year and Christmas releases, Peterson has two new System shapes coming up as well as some revivals and special issues. I think I heard someone say all the CPGs will be given a gift bag with one of every pipe in Natural if they attend the show . . . but maybe I dreamed that.

I asked Glen Whelan, Managing Director at K&P, if he would share with us a bit about the release.  “This is a really extraordinary year for Peterson,” Glen said, “and keeping the St. Patrick’s Day release in a very traditional Peterson aesthetic was really important to us. Using vulcanite P-Lip stems and sterling silver bands could not have gotten us any more traditional. I do have to pay compliments to the design team for their work on the silver band—to come up with a Shamrock design that looks unique is basically impossible. It was an absolutely ingenious idea to incorporate the Celtic knots and Shamrock together to achieve a design that is completely unique!”

I couldn’t agree more with Glen.  This is also the first new silver stamp we’ve seen in a long time, and it just couldn’t be any more elegant.

Now, as to that P-Lip vulcanite stem with its inlaid aluminum P.  Do you realize this is the first Classics Range SPD P-Lip pipe in twenty-five years (if you don’t believe me, take a look at Post #84) as well as Jason Canady’s complete collection in Post #389)?  This is worth remarking, especially if you haven’t smoked a Peterson P-Lip Classic Range pipe.  While I do have some great F/T Petes, the P-Lip Classic Range pipes always smoke dry. When you compare them to another pipe-maker’s fishtails, they’ll almost always come out ahead. Only the DeLuxe Classics and Sherlock Holmes ranges exclusively feature the P-Lip at present (although as Trent comments below, the Aran and Emerald sometimes do so!) this is a great opportunity to enjoy a fantastic smoke in a commemorative line.

Since these had to be in production in time for us here at the end of January,
the sterling is hallmarked “N” for 2024–something that the Assay Office at Dublin Castle seems unwilling
to help us with! Those lads can be unreasonable sometimes.

I’d love to see this sterling stamp on a System someday.
(Pardon the dust on the stem–low humidity here today has caused a lot of static electricity.)

I would tell you which are my favorites, but lately every time I do this, when I get to the drop party and SPC’s internet is finally working they’re all gone! What’s up with that, guys?

03

 

15

 

53

 

65

 

69

 

85

 

86

87

 

103

 

 

106

 

 

124

 

127

 

 

 

128

 

 

129

 

 

 

150

 

 

221

 

 

264

 

 

265

 

 

268

 

 

304

 

 

338

 

406

 

 

411

 

 

605

 

 

608

 

 

701

 

 

 

999

 

3085

 

B10

 

X105

 

XL02

 

XL11

 

 

XL90

 

MANY THANKS
to Glen Whelan, Josh Burgess, Andy Wikes and Kaz Walters for assistance, interviews, product photos, samples to photograph et., all of which are courtesy of Smokingpipes.com

 

Stephano Zabino CPG

 

Nathan Patterson CPG

 

Michael Mikropoulos

 

Matt Gase CPG

 

Harald Stoecklmair CPG

 

Clint Stacey CPG

 

Jon Umpherville CPG

 

 

 

Courtesy Mac Baren Tobacco

Last week Denton Grandy at Mac Baren wrote with this following delightful bit of information:

 

Peterson Pipe Notes will return
in two weeks!