Peterson Collectors

PSA Thanks to everyone who bought and reviewed The Historic 1906 Catalog--as Mark Berman said last Sunday, it's sold out.  I'm hoping we'll see a second printing before too long.   Shank stamps are so important.  As I discussed back in Post #232, line name, maker, shape number, precious metal stamps, and country of manufacture stamps are the the primary ways a pipe can be identified.  The history of Kapp & Peterson has been a gradual unfolding of the company’s understanding of the importance and even political significance of these stamps, as I’ve discussed elsewhere.  Learning to read what these stamps can tell us as Pete Geeks is therefore highly advantageous, whether it’s knowing the difference between a “Peterson’s” as in Peterson’s of New York and Kapp & Peterson or knowing what era a Pete was probably made. When the briar dust had settled after Laudisi’s 2018 acquisition of Peterron, in 2021 Peterson issued its new Made in Ireland stamp, the first true Country of Manufacture (COM) stamp since the demise of the three-line MADE IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND stamp in the late 1990s. The stamp has just recently been updated—or rather, upgraded—by inserting the year, so that, going forward, every single pipe coming off the factory floor can be dated. It really doesn’t get any better than this as far as knowing about the pipe you’ve acquired, whether it’s new, estate, or new / old stock. The shape Laudisi-era Peterson chose is worth remarking.  Whether it was done consciously or subconsciously, they chose the famous “rugby style” COM, one of several used over the years by Peterson’s London factory from its opening at 74-77 White Lion Street in late 1937 until its final dissolution on the 5th of September, 1963.* K&P's London factory was fairly small as factories go, at least according to information in The K&P Register: Granted WWII was raging and that briar supplies must've been nearly impossible to obtain, but the 12 names listed on the 1944 roster are the earliest information we have about the London employment roster. It would be difficult to see how it could have done with less people. I think I'm reading 41 names on the 1947 wage list--which might have been a third or a half of what the roster was in Dublin for the same period. The factory came about because of something we’ve been hearing a lot about lately—tariffs. Great Britain was one of K&P’s most important markets and to avoid serious financial damage, Peterson decided to open a factory in London to manufacture pipes specifically for Great Britain.  What Peterson couldn’t have known at the time, of course, was that the Battle of Britain, WWII and U-Boats were just around the corner.  How the London factory survived, or whether it helped K&P in Dublin make it through those years, I haven’t been able to determine.  Neither have I been able to source any period photos of either the exterior or the interior of the factory, which…