System Pipes

Happy Father’s Day to you, whether as biological father, nurturing father, pater familias, mentor, in loco parentis, servant leader or leader-manager. Fathering is a difficult task, requiring wisdom, forbearance, mercy, justice, leadership by example and an abundance of love—all of which can be enhanced by the judicious and timely application of a good pipe and choice tobacco. This year marks the 40th anniversary of a number of remarkable System and Classic Range shapes in the Peterson catalog. The decade from 1975 to 1985 was the high-water mark of Peterson invention and engineering, second only to the original Patent era. Bowls, mouthpieces, finishes and internal engineering—at least, from pipes I have examined—have never been bettered. In the detail above from the 1979 catalog update, from left to right you can see the first new System shapes to be introduced since Charles Peterson’s 1896 designs: the 1 bent pot or “short dutch,” the 2 and 3 small and large bent apples, and the 5 bent dublin (seen as Premier and Standard Systems 301, 302, 303 and 305 in the second and third rows and Dunmore Premier Unmounted Systems 70 [302], 71 [301], 75 [305] and 76 [303] in the bottom row).  In the decades since their introduction, the 301, 302 and 303 have become staples of the System lineup. Pay particular attention to the A or army-mount mouthpiece in the pipes on the second, third and fourth rows (and the 2 in the first row): notice its high, wide shoulder. This was a new design, created only for these shapes (and the MT System) and would be discarded by the early Dublin era (c. 1991). Externally, it looks like nothing so much as an old WDC Wellington mouthpiece. But look closer, or better yet clinch one and you’ll see why I call it the “Comfort P-Lip.” It’s got a wide, flat button and a thick tenon externally, and of course the graduated bore inside. If you’re looking for the ne plus ultra System Standard or Premier mouthpiece, look no further. The 05, the only bent dublin Peterson has ever released, was only available from 1979 to c. 1984. As related in the Peterson book, users were complaining that the narrow shank prevented the reservoir from functioning correctly. My own experience with the shape confirms the truth of that finding, but what no one realized at the time was just how well the 5 and its larger sibling the XL5, performed as bent dublins. It’s a shame they were dropped, but they appear regularly on the estate market and I encourage anyone who enjoys the v-chamber of a straight dublin to seek this shape out. In the Classic Range illustration seen from the same catalog, then-managing director William Sweeney and his craftsmen and women introduced six new shapes: the 68, 82s, 107, 119, 405s and 04. The 04 was a first, tentative attempt to release an homage to vintage Peterson shapes—in this case, the 1906 Kaffir. It’s a striking pipe and comes up…