11. The 2013 Peterson Antique Collection: Return of the 1905 “Pat”
I was fortunate to at the Peterson factory in Sallynoggin last summer just as one of the first trays of the 2013 Antique Collection was laying out on a tray in shipping with a vendor ticket to a certain famous tobacconist’s shop in Tokyo. There were about sixty pipes on the tray, and being a great fan of the early Peterson shapes, I was almost beside myself to see the “Pat”—one of the few named Peterson Patent Lip shapes in the 1905 catalog, in both its straight and bent versions—and one I’d long hoped K&P would re-issue. So, with a little persuasion and help from Doris (who’s been in charge of shipping for a little over forty years now), I managed after a day or two to divert two of these lovelies (with official sanctioning) from their original destination in Tokyo to my courier bag. Antique Collection 2013 The 2013 Antique Collection is the fourth to appear. The series began in 1996 with a quartet of shapes available in retro-style individual cases or in a companion case as a set. A second brace of pipes appeared in the series in 2005 and a third in 2009. I won’t say I think Peterson always gets it exactly right with their reproductions, but this time they nailed it. If you follow shape fashions in the hobby, you’ll remember that Nose-warmers and Chubbies were a bit of a thing not long after the rage for volcano shapes subsided, with appreciations by Greg Pease, Neill Archer Roan and others appearing on the internet. This latest Antique offering from Peterson fell just a little afterwards. The bent billiard in the 2013 Collection can be found on p. 75 of the 1905 catalog, where it is reproduced exactly to scale and is labeled “Pat Bent B short” (the “B” stands for a tapered stem). The reproduction has only changed the angle of the mouthpiece, bringing it parallel to the rim of the pipe rather than allowing the rim to cant forward. As to what the “Pat” means, your guess is as good as mine: is it short for “Patrick,” as the most common of all names in Ireland? I asked Tom Palmer, CEO at Peterson about it, and he suggested it could also be short for “patent.” The Pat Bent B Short (1905) The “Pat” model in the 1905 catalog is illustrated in a number of mountings and stem lengths, but in only three models: the bent, the straight, and the “O” for “oval”— the oval pipes of the period designed for a gentleman's use and placed in a vest or coat pocket where it wouldn’t disrupt the lines of one’s clothing—as for instance when one went to the “O”-pera and wanted a short smoke entr'acte. The straight billiard in the 2013 Collection, on the same page of the 1905 catalog, is almost identical to the “Pat B,” but with a slightly shorter, thicker, and to my eye more pleasing stem. The Pat B (1905)…