386. International Peterson Smoking Day 2024: The Beauty and the Beast Challenge
Before he could ask, she smiled and whispered,
“Mackenzie, we all have things we value enough to collect, don’t we?”
—Sarayu, in Wm. Paul Young’s The Shack (91)
Here we are at the 17th annual International Pipe Smoking Day–or as we like to think of it, the International Peterson Smoking Day. Chuck Stanion has a short history over at SPC’s Daily Reader if you’re new to the day, and while his rosy prophecy regarding the future of the day has yet to come to pass, it is only a matter of time before the world catches a glimpse of its own sorry-looking, stressed-out self in the mirror and realizes it’s time to cease and desist. As Pete Geeks, it’s our bounden duty by word and deed to bring healing to the world with our favorite Pete and tobacco as we settle into a comfortable chair and practice the pipe of peace.
This year’s PPN theme is La Belle et la Bête, that is, “Beauty and the Beast,” taken from the 1740 French fairy tale written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve but having long ago entered into the lingua franca of fable and received a pretty decent send-up by Disney over 30 years ago now in a ground-breaking animated version. Pete Geeks from across the globe–Greece, Sweden, China, Britain, Denmark, the United States and elsewhere have answered the call today to bring forth from their rotations both “Beauty” and “Beast” in which to offer up the “Soverane Herb” (W. A. Penn) in salutation of the world’s finest smoking pipes and the Fellowship of the Briar.
Cheyen Lloyd, CPG.
The beast of a pipe would have to be a 1902 hallmarked House Pipe, in a pinch it could be easily wielded as a club. A 1980 hallmarked Meerschaum, almost too beautiful to smoke… almost!
Lance Dahl, CPG.
My beauty pipe is my Peterson 1898 O1 w/ Rose gold band. This is one of those pipes that should be displayed at Peterson someday. The beast is my 1899 one-off shape, it’s a huge pipe the bowl is 3” tall, Chamber depth is 2.35”, Chamber diameter is 1.1”, wall thickness at the top of the bowl is .43”. The stem is 7” long from where the bone chimney screws into the stem. It has two of the infamous Maltese crosses stamped below the Peterson Patent lines. Sláinte!
Shimshon Cook, CPG (Talmudic Scholar).
Tractate Shalom Beis
Daf Alef, Amud Bet
Beauty is smooth, sturdy and voluminous. Beasty is slightly stacked, sandblasted and works well with Syrian leaf.
Rav Balat HaBeit says “If the room note is strong and if the weather is nice, then Beasty. If the room note is light and the weather is not nice then Beauty.”
Rebbetizn Ishti says “If strong, then Beauty.”
Rav Shalom HaTzaddik says “if Shalom Beis is the ikar and the weather is nice, then Beauty or Beasty it makes no difference. If Ishti is with, that opinion supersedes all other opinions regardless of the weather.”
Hacham Irwin states “mental health outweighs all other opinions and leads to shalom beis and Ishto will understand.”
Björn Strömberg, CPG.
What is a Beauty in a fairy tale ? A “perfectly” shaped external appearance with an astonishing character. Among my Petersons it’s without any doubt my early republic Kapet 417, the long Dublin. With its cross grain and absolutely flawless birds-eyes on the perfectly carved stummel and the slip-fit graceful pencil-like stem with its sharply cut and shaped P-Lip (wish current P-Lip cutters could see and study it). Whatever I fill with, it gives a full spectrum taste and nothing but white ash left. It’s superior to any brand of high end pipes from the same era (and I have quite a few). And remember Kapet was Peterson’s 3rd quality level at the time.
What is a Beast in a fairy tale ? A reputedly scary (maybe monstrous) exterior and a doubtful, not to say bad, character, something either killed in the end or proven to be a hidden beauty. Among my Petersons I ended up with my System Clay 12 as the beast. With its unclear and inconsistent definition of the shape, it’s almost like semi-floating mud (hmmm.. I guess it originally was). A cheap nickel ferrule with anything but a smooth transition and fit to the stummel, which is screaming “I’m fragile.” Though – once filled and lit… the magic happens. The weight from a clay in hand or clenched is different, feels very comfortable. Not to mention how a system clay add zero taste, always stay cool with it’s thickness and burns anything into white ash. A true beautiful beast in burning tobacco.
As always, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Clint Stacey, CPG.
The Beast – Rusticated Pub Pipe. My first trip to Ireland – meant a trip to Dublin – naturally. A trip to Petersons – naturally. A new pipe – naturally. But what to buy was quite a different question. What I wanted was a smooth, sleek, sophisticated pipe with elegant lines… and what did I get? Well, not that. Having spent fifteen minutes or so surveying the pipes on display I picked up a pipe that I liked, it was delicate, meek and understated. The gentleman behind the counter looked me up and down (I’m 6’4 and about 18 stone.) ‘You’re gonna need a bigger pipe’ he said and that was that. It’s a good piece of briar for your money admittedly, though I did need to check it was briar and hadn’t been hewn from a gigantic fir cone. Putting it in my mouth I felt like Prince Caspian blowing on Susan’s horn to signify danger. This was a pipe that only the sedate setting of the shop and the murmur of traffic in the background had helped belie the fact that it hadn’t in some way journeyed from the bowels of a very ancient earth – it was even called a ‘Pub pipe’ – I mean everyone knows you can’t smoke in pubs! But who would dare tell this bemouth ‘you can’t smoke in here?’ So rather self-consciously I made my way through the streets of Dublin with something dark and dangerous lurking in a bag of a particularly well-known green.
Back home I eyed it anxiously for a week or two but finding it quiet and sedate I began the gentle process of first handling and then smoking. Slowly I began to warm to and appreciate the qualities of the ‘beast’. I now sit there picturing myself as one of the lesser-known Inklings under this guise I would visit my local and talk about my fantastic creations… unfortunately you can’t smoke in pubs and maybe it isn’t safe to let this beast out amongst the public just yet…
The Beauty – Irish Free State house pipe.
This Irish free state was found at a car boot sale. Hidden in a box amongst an assortment of all kinds of rubbish it lay forlornly minus its stem. Thanks to the craftsmanship of Geoff Watson at Cambridge Pipes it is whole again! A real beauty…
The Beast and the Beauty —
Jonathan Gut, CPG.
So my Beauty pipe is this 1909 X160B short Swan neck plip. I saw a 1906 on eBay recently and was amazed at how much it fetched even without an original stem. Mine is all original, a truly beautiful graceful looking pipe, I consider it a beauty because I feel guilty whenever I smoke it, afraid I may diminish its beauty every time I apply flame to tobacco so I rarely smoke it. It has an average size bowl roughly 1 5/8 deep by 13/16 chamber depth and typical for the smaller patent pipes. My Beast is the 1990 Commemorative Patent system bent pipe. It’s one of the largest oom paul shaped Peterson’s so a bowl full with it is a sit down and relax smoke. It’s an awesome smoker, rarely need a relight, cool dry smoke, with a deep reservoir that wicks away the moisture effortlessly. It is my go to pipe when I need a long relaxing smoke. I like the shape and performance so much that I own three each in the different finishes (rusticated, terracotta, and oak). I own several Peterson’s, more than my wife says I need but I feel these two truly represent Beauty and the Beast.
Ken Sigel, CPG.
When I saw the “Beauty and the Beast” challenge, I immediately thought of big and small. I companion some very beautiful patent era small pipes, and I am lucky enough to companion three House Pipes with 16” stems (2 original Patent era and one Silver Gray NAP reproduction).
As is often my way, with 24 hours to go until the submission deadline, I decided to work on my personal philosophy with a bowl of nice Virginia and an Oom Paul from 1925 with a NAP stem. What could be better? Then it hit me. I had “beauty” in my hand, and in the drawer beside it was the “beast.” It is a larger version of that pipe from 1898. In looking at the two, side by side, I couldn’t but notice that the 1925 was the more beautiful of the two! Yes, the 1925 is all polished up whilst I have left the 1898 as it came to me. It is more than that. To my eye the 1925 has the better proportions and is nicer in the hand. Evolution!
Daniel Billings, CPG.
Low Country Pipe and Cigar, the home shop for SmokingPipes.com, a Mecca for many a pipe smoker. I stood in this hallowed venue looking at a pipe – a Peterson B42, to be precise. Previously, this shape just hadn’t done it for me; it was too big, too weighty, too bulbous, too… everything. But this pipe, it was speaking to me. Not only was it one of the newer B42s that was a brandy instead of an apple, but this particular pipe also featured a slightly steeper bend and one hell of a gnarly blast that (mostly) covered up the sandpits. I had no choice, I simply had to buy it. It was a beast, but it was perfect – and, dear God, does it smoke English blends like a champ!
Fast forward to January 2024. Like many, I was awaiting the news on the new St. Patrick’s Day line – and, like many, I had mixed thoughts about what I saw when the teaser was dropped. However, in looking at everything online, the Heritage finish 313 stood out of the crowd and screamed at me. Much smaller than what I usually smoke, there was just something about this shape combined with the dark brown and green palette. Truly a beauty – and like with the B42, I simply had to have it. But unlike the B42, it primarily shines with Virginia blends like Capstan Blue.
What I find fascinating about both of these pipes is that neither one fits into my usual profile. Yes, they are both System pipes, but there are no other brandies or Dutch billiards in my collection. Nothing even close, really. And yet, almost instantly, these two pipes have both become favorites of mine. Perfect foils of each other, together they cover the gamut of what a pipe can be: giant or petite, gnarly or smooth, perfect for a bold English or a delicate Virginia. A true beauty and beast.
Rob Guttridge, CPG.
The XL22 Short Army really is a burly Beast, seen here next to the X105 Short and 150 Short Army.
Tom Dempsey, CPG.
My Peterson Churchwarden pipe is a Beauty. It is long and elegant with sleek lines allowing me to gracefully sip from a small briar bowl packed lightly with aromatic tobacco. It produces cool wisps of thin white smoke.
My Peterson Darwin is a real Beast. It is a muscular briar, built strong to withstand the heat and the loads of English tobacco that I fill it with. When I smoke it, this big bowl pipe produces clouds of heavy smoke.
Justin Beal, CPG.
The beautys seem to me to be easy to describe. I chose two because I love them both, and one is smooth and the other is blasted. The smaller of the two is a Peterson Deluxe 12 1/2 and the blasted one is a Peterson Premier 307. In my mind these both show the best parts of Peterson’s ability to make beautiful pipes. Unfortunately, I don’t smoke these as much as I probably should…
On the other hand, the “beast” is just that. A Peterson 306 that I got online for a paltry some of $10. It had a silver band, but the p-lip was in need of repair from a bite through, etc. I figured the silver was worth the $10, so I bought it. I ended up repairing it to smoking shape, and that’s about it. I love it though, because if I drop it, etc. it’s no big deal. It was going in the trash, and now it is being used weekly. It shows just how durable these pipes can be with just a little bit of effort… Have a great long weekend and IP(P)SD!
Simon Gilles, CPG.
It’s a great pleasure to be part of this year’s challenge as a CPG! This question of beauty and beast is very interesting because everyone has different answers. In my opinion, beauty and beast are not antagonistic, but two distant qualities (yes, being a beast can be a quality).
My Beauty is a Tankard short classic natural: extremely light, the orange grain is absolutely sublime. I love looking at it as much as smoking it, but I keep it at home.
My Beast is a 9B: I could have chosen another more massive pipe (House billiard spigot for example) but I wanted to pay tribute to this Irish Seconds. It’s my beast because it has silently undergone all the torments I’ve put it through: changes to the draw, drilling the tenon for a 9mm filter, trying to remove the dark tint (if anyone has a method of restoring its natural light tint, I’d love one!).
It also smokes well and has become my travel pipe. Less beautiful, of course, but just as precious to me. Take care !
Kevin Cavanagh, CPG.
As a lover of pipes with character that proudly show their faults on the outside, but smoke with best of them this took some thought.
My Beast is my Irish Seconds 301. I believe this pipe was destined as a Newgrange until a large scar was found on the shank. It’s big, beefy, deeply blasted.
For my Beauty I’d have to be my 4AB POY Terracotta. A perfect marriage of elegant shaping and function, the tenon extension really takes it to the next level.
Cao Jianle, CPG.
Beauty: POY2022
My first pipe, a gift to myself, is a symbol of personal growth. It brings me moments of solitude and relaxation.
Beast: PUB PIPE
My largest pipe, which is also my personal favorite style. It’s a testament to my love of smoking.
Mark Hunt, CPG.
My beauty is a Captain Pete 107 Chubby with a glorious wood grain which draws me into a relaxed, nearly hypnotic, state while enjoying its incredible smoking capability. The beast is an Irish Seconds Deerstalker SH that also smokes fabulously. Nicely rusticated, though it’s being a second did allow me, a few years back, to use a brand new carving knife to “personalize” it further, and I felt so inclined to “top” it, exposing the briar for all to see. Both are great smokes as both are Petes! I picked up the Chubby Captain Pete online from a CPG who knows that which he speaks. Thanks, Bishop!
Robert Cuccaro, CPG.
Beast has to go to PSOI pipe from 22. True beast in every sense. Huge, can smoke like a chimney, and can take a beating. My new addition – Briar circle 14 with amber nap is a true beauty. Great example of Paddy Larrigan’s work. The NAP basically eliminates the tongue bite on this small pipe.
Scott Forrest, CPG.
The ‘Beauty’ is the ‘Kapp & Peterson Limited’ pipe to the right. I have other Petersons that would probably be considered by many to be more beautiful than this one, but there’s something about it’s elegant swan-neck shape and its extra-long highly-figured amber stem that makes it easily the most beautiful bent billiard I own. The only thing that identifies it as being a Peterson is the shank stamping: ‘Kapp & Peterson’ – the ornate silver ferrule has no references to Peterson, the amber stem is not a p-lip, and any identifiers that were in the case are long gone. The pipe was probably sold in the Dublin shop prior to WWI. The mystery as to its lack of identifiers adds to its beauty in my opinion. The earliest known owner of the pipe was a man from England who traveled across Ireland for work.
My ‘Beast’ submission was an easy selection: This 1917-hallmarked 7B dutch spent two-plus years with its German POW owner in the British WWI aliens prisoner camp at Douglas, Isle of Man. There are severe cracks in the stummel that remain from where someone glued the pieces back together and continued smoking this beast. At the end of his interment, the pipe meant enough to the owner that he had a piece of silver engraved in German indicating that it was a souvenir of his interment in Douglas POW camp, 1919 (when the last prisoners were released). The pipe eventually ended up in San Antonio, Texas, where it was found among a man’s belongings when he passed away many years ago, by his son.
Fletch Hiner, CPG.
My Beauty and the Beast are a 2023 B42 which is a beauty all around and Pre Republic Shamrock 53 is the Beast, it’s got tooth dents and fills in all the wrong places. It sure smokes like a beast though.
Lee Skiver, CPG.
Beauty: the lithe and delicate D16, natural smooth finish
Beast: the big, burly and rugged Plateau in Rua finish
Mike Austin, CPG.
I chose pipes from the Sherlock Holmes series.
My Beauty is a 2022 Sherlock Holmes Professor Christmas pipe.
My Beast is a 2023 Sherlock Holmes Professor sandblasted PSB pipe.
My beauty is just that: a beauty. With great lines and the flow of the pipe it’s just right for a long evening smoke. I’ve always loved the beauty of the darker stained pipes along with shine of the jet black ebonite stem and the accent of the copper Sherlock Holmes band.
My Beast is just that: a beast. With it’s rough and burly sandblasted finish I feel this is a beast of a pipe. l love the look and feel of the finish of a PSB pipe while in my hands smoking on a quite evening. The Sherlock Holmes series offers the collector many directions to travel while collection the series.
Martin Schwartz, CPG.
Greetings everyone my two companions in my rotation as follows.
The Beauty IORA 53: what can I say, look at it.
The Beast made in Great Britain 106S Kapmeer, smokes like a beast.
Huge chamber cool dry smoke, but after 80% through the bowl the real Beast mode happen old and cold cappuccino taste in my mouth absolutely disgusting.
And there I stop and think all good things come to an end. But I keep smoking it.
Erik Peissig, CPG.
After much consideration, I have determined my Standard System Smooth 303 to be my “Beauty”. Like Bell, it comes from humble beginnings, and blossoms into the most beautiful woman around. The shape and grain all come together perfectly. She is not just a pretty face. Bell is intelligent, and my 303 is one of my best smokers. A Dracula seemed like cheating, so I chose my Tankard XL for the “Beast”. The Beast in the story maintains royal attire and knowledge of etiquette. He is just visually unattractive to most, and grumpy. My Tankard is big and square with odd inconsistent grain and obvious sand pits that most would likely run from screaming. I have learned to love it. It doesn’t perform the best with everything, but smokes burley blends extremely well. The light stain brings out the best in the odd grain. And, the silver band sparkles bright.
Bob Sievers, CPG.
Beauty and the Beast? For my Beauty and the Beast I have chosen my diminutive beauty…a Green Spigot 128 to be paired with a Sherlock Holmes (Bulldog) Baker Street. Of course for the Beauty I will smoke Sweet Killarney, but the Beast prefers The Merry Monk.
Lester Mills, CPG.
My favourite Peterson pipe is the “Rathbone” model of the Sherlock Holmes series, sandblasted…the swan neck stem…so elegant…as Basil Rathbone was…portraying Sherlock Holmes. As I love silvered banded Peterson p-lip 9mm filtered pipes…the pipe starts with many plus points…but…the shape…and…the finish…for me…are exquisite…befitting a gentleman…and it cuts a presentable figure…when I smoke it with my dinner jacket…indeed 🤵🏻😉💨💨💨
Now to the “Beast”….its hard to think to describe a Peterson pipe…as a beast 🤔…but…Dracula….was certainly a beast, he was partly a bat 🦇 So….this wonderful silver banded Dracula 9mm…with…red & black swirl stem…fits in the role of a “Peterson Beast”…still…I have to say…this pipe has…a dark menacing beauty…in its own dramatic way🧛🏻😉💨💨💨
Michael Mikropoulos, CPG.
Greetings from Kavala, Greece!
The Beauty: Patent 2 (1903) 12
The Beast: Kapet Special 721
It was very easy to choose the “Beast” as this Kapet Special from the “700” group is a really large, “House” sized pipe! I struggled a bit with “Beauty”, but I think this delicate Patent 12 fits the role perfectly!
Now to the “Beast”….its hard to think to describe a Peterson pipe…as a beast 🤔…but…Dracula….was certainly a beast, he was partly a bat 🦇 So….this wonderful silver banded Dracula 9mm…with…red & black swirl stem…fits in the role of a “Peterson Beast”…still…I have to say…this pipe has…a dark menacing beauty…in its own dramatic way🧛🏻😉💨💨💨
John M. Young, CPG.
Beauty = Peterson Deluxe XL339 (c. ?)
Beast = Peterson Christmas 2022 B42 rusticated
Ralle Perera, CPG.
This challenge was a hard one … All my pipes (except one…) are more or less Beautys… and lovely smokers.
Beauty: Irish second (1) Rathbone Sherlock Holmes.
Beast: Irish second (2) 9B.
Both Beauty and Beast in the same pipe? The Irish second (2) 9B.
Any Irish Seconds are regarded as beasts, since they are considered to be … seconds.
The 2016 Pipe of the year D20 (a chimney and not a second)… Is the only one that l do not get along with. We have tried and tried a lot but we are not just meant for each other…
Mark Irwin, CPG.
The Beauty: POY 2005. This is to my mind the most beautiful Pipe of the Year K&P has ever made. The deep engraving of the sterling spigot and ferrule–which looks like something from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood–are as good, if not better, than the kind of engraving seen on Patent sterling pipes.
The Beast: POY 2021. Dragons can and usually are quite fierce beasts, unleashing their fire to the destruction of those around them. There is, I suspect, another side to them, one whispered by the small Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis) lizards that share my property with me. Sometimes that which is wild and untamed can also be quite strong and good, like that dragon-in-pipe-form, the 4AB Rustic POY.
The Commentary: What I love about Peterson pipes and about Kapp & Peterson throughout most of its history, is the sense of superabundance. Even though sometimes we get caught up in wanting to find this or that Pete or being disappointed when we miss an opportunity, there’s no getting around the fact that there’s always another great Pete waiting up around the bend. It’s a culturally counter-intuitive thought, like grace itself. In The Word in the Wilderness, poet and pipeman Malcolm Guite writes, “In his chilling essay ‘The Inner Ring,’ C. S. Lewis lays open the fallen desire in all of us to belong to exclusive clubs, cliques and circles, to be someone who is ‘in’, ‘in the know’, ‘in the right circles’, ‘in on the real knowledge and power’ among ‘those who really count’; and to be able to look down on those who are ‘out’, excluded, not part of the magic circle. So much of the consumerism that chokes our society, brings misery to the haves and the have-nots alike, is driven by this desire to have, to wear, to drive: to possess the status symbols, the ‘exclusive’ signs of belonging. Time and again goods and services are offered by manufacturers not for their intrinsic virtue, the beauty of their design, or the genuine pleasure that might be had from owning or using them” (15). Intrinsic value, beauty of design, genuine pleasure we derive from owning and having: thanks, Kapp & Peterson!
…and thanks to all who participated
in this year’s IPSD event.
Fumare in pace—
Smoke in peace.
Clipping from the London Times, Dec 15, 1921
PETE GEEK MUGS SHIPPED
If you’ve paid for your mug(s), these have ALL been shipped as of today.
If you haven’t yet paid, please do so by Wednesday at 12 noon CST,
when they will be released to those on the waiting list.
Many, many thanks to Gigi, who worked tirelessly for the last week
to invoice and pack. Without her, fellas, this event would NOT have happened!