Devil Anse pipe

(1) I have a deep passion for vintage pipe shapes, Kapp & Peterson’s in particular. Part of this is undoubtedly because so many original Peterson shapes are still being made. Part of it has to do with the mythic shift of time and culture which can concretely be held in one’s hands and smoked. It’s what Eric Squires calls “endurance”: “What I like, I’ve decided, is what endures, those things that keep surviving through time and wear, fashions and fads, exposure, accident, and hardship.”* I would call it rootedness, I suppose—benchmarks, touchstones, archetypes, glimpses into the really Deep Things. Antique Collection 2005 (Courtesy Smokingpipes.com) In any event, Peterson’s various Antique Collections have all spoken directly (if sub-vocally) to me about “endurance” or rootedness or whatever you’d like to call it, beginning with the first four back in 1996 and followed by the release of subsequent pairs in 2005, 2009 and 2013. I’ve managed to find at least one shape from each collection that has endured in my rotation and tried almost all of them. After the Kaffir, or alongside it, one of my favorite recreations is the 1904 reproduction released as part of the 2005 set of two pictured above. The shape is found in the 1906 catalog as the “Large Jap.”** The Three "Jap" Shapes (1906 Catalog) The 1904 Antique as released did not feature a P-Lip stem—an interesting anachronism which I will pass over—but is in fact the same size as the Large Jap AB when you lay it on top of the engraving (the catalog was printed at full 1 : 1 scale). The cant of the bowl is not as far forward on the reproduction pipe, and its walls are actually thicker than those illustrated. Both of these changes are probably to the benefit of the pipe. Its smaller bowl geometry of (approximately) 20mm wide by 40mm deep (0.80 x 1.59 in.) is what I think of as the Universal Ideal—you can get good results no matter what type of tobacco you prefer. And its thicker walls make for a chubbier look and a cooler touch. I found the fishtails somewhat uncomfortable, so I sent off and acquired P-Lip stems for my 1904/1908 set, which proved to be not only more comfortable but to smoke better as well, given the graduated bore and P-Lip smoke dispersal. As you can see by the oxidation on the stem of my Antique 1904, it gets a lot of use. Kapet B23 (Restored) and 1904 Antique (Much Used) After releasing the 2009 set of Antique Reproductions, Peterson still had a few of the  Antique 1904 bowls from the 2005 set on hand, which were given the B23 shape number. A few were released in Mario Lubsinksi’s Italy-only Rock of Cashel line, but most of them were released under the Kapet line name. B23 Rock of Cashel (Italy) The Kapet has traditionally been an entry-grade line for Peterson, but as you can see in the two photos from Smokingpipes below, they…