House Pipe

PSAs: Pete Geek Pipe Rests are Shipping! We need your help-- --LAST CALL FOR NEW ERA PETE GEEK CAPS! (see end of post for details)   It’s always easy to forget that dating pipes and shapes, which is so crucially important (viz., fun) for us as companioners isn’t something to which pipe makers really give much thought. There are a few notable exceptions—like Castello’s stamping of many of their pipes down to the Italian tobacconist to which they’re sold. And then there’s Dunhill, long renowned for dating their pipes, and then, of course, K&P, who does an even better job.  Yet it behooves us as Pete Geeks to remember that for the most part the history of a pipe or line of pipes isn't something that enters the thinking of pipe makers. I say this because to remain in business, a pipe maker has to continually make and sell pipes, and once the pipes are sold? Well, the maker must move to the next round. If a pipe maker does this long enough—say, 165 years in the case of one pipe maker dear to those who read this blog—well, the history can get hazy. Even the fairly recent history. Enter the largest System pipe in K&P’s catalog, the HAND-MADE, or, as it’s more commonly known, the House Pipe. There are mysteries here that I wish I could unravel, but I’ll do what I can this morning and hope that perhaps readers today or by some valuable find in the future, will make matters clearer. Detail from a Peterson-Glass 1979 Catalog So here’s what we know. The System House Pipe and its sibling the straight billiard House Pipe didn’t enter the catalog until the demise of the Giant (Post #245). The Giant (ain bent and straight) is last seen in a rare catalog put out by Peterson-Glass, Peterson's UK distributor from 1977 to 1982 or so. As you can see in the detail photo above, the Giant was classified as one of the Specialty pipes. Not long after the demise of the Giant, the House Pipe entered production. Probably as early as the mid-1980s. In a letter to Linwood Hines CPG dated December 15, 1988, Tony Dempsey of Peterson wrote: “We don’t have any specific information on Peterson Hand Made Pipes. We only make them occasionally, when a customer like Hollco -Rohr requests them. It is very time-consuming work and there is a very high rejection level. The shapes we make are usually governed by the size of the wood available.” The House Pipe was made for several years before Dempsey's letter. We know this thanks to Andy Camire CPG and Linwood Hines CPG, who sent me copies of Al Rosenfield's Sherlock Holmes Pipe Club newsletter for March, 1991, where no less than three House Pipes were listed: A 1981 Red Silver Cap and a 1987 Straight Grain Silver Cap are listed as well as an "1886 Housepipe."  I'm guessing this was a typo on Rosenfield's part and he meant 1986,…