Series

For the 23rd annual release of the St. Patrick’s Day commemorative and for the first time in three years, K&P has brought out a traditional “navy mount” pipe. The in-house caramel-over-dark brown rustication is complemented this year by a green acrylic fishtail mouthpiece and introduces to the SPD a very bright, very shiny nickel band with Peterson (in script) over OF DUBLIN encircling the classic Peterson “P” which I have seen on the Aran nickel-mounts. In several of the shapes (as seen below) the mouthpiece is extended—not to the extent of the Waterford pipes, but long enough to make a distinct difference in the shape's aesthetic and overall look. This is always delightful to me, to see just how many changes K&P can ring on a particular bowl—which is, of course, a practice they've used since 1891! The super-cool thing about this year’s release, as you can see in the photo above, is a special green leather pipe holder, embossed with the Peterson logo and a shamrock. For the Pete Geeks I know, this is going to be a must-have or at least a "must want," as so many of us have specialized collecting interests that don't normally include the SPD. You can only get this lovely by buying one of the SPD 2021 pipes. I know because I asked (and if the author of the IPPY gold-medal winning The Peterson Pipe: the Story of Kapp & Peterson can’t get one without making an SPD2021 purchase and you can—I don’t wanna hear about it! Bruce W., call the waaambulance.) During K&P’s big production era—say from 1891 through 1984, when they turned bowls in-house—the work on the factory floor was measured by rendering in the dozens, as in, “‘Hey, Jonathan, how many dozens you got?’ ‘I’ve almost got my first gross, Glen.’” The practice of counting by the dozen (base 12), seems to go back to the beginning of human history, although today we mostly think of its use in analog clock-time (and doughnuts, if you live in the US). Of course, we still use a 12-month calendar based on approximately twelve cycles of the moon for every cycle of the sun. But in ancient cultures (Chaldean, Egyptian, Celtic) it was natural to count as the earth itself counts. For me, it’s another reason to celebrate Kapp & Peterson as one of the last vestiges of Celtic sensibility. I don’t know whether current factory crafts folk still count by the dozens, but the idea carried over into the Dublin era's (1981-2018) commemorative issues like the Christmas and St. Patrick’s Day pipe, when twelve shapes were selected. For the Pete Geek during that era, there was the additional delight waiting to see what the “special special issue” pipe would be—meaning a shape drawn from a recent Pipe of the Year, special collection or special issue. In the Laudisi era, the American-directed company has been consistently expanding the number of shapes for commemorative issues to virtually anything on hand in the Classic Range.…