Mark Twain

  PSAs THE CPG CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT EVENT is in progress!order yours here: GOOGLE FORM FOR CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT There's also a few tintackers left, you can order here: GOOGLE FORM FOR TINTACKER   MILESTONES: LUNTING TO THE 160th ANNIVERSARY PIPES Kapp & Peterson being what it is—the world’s longest continuously operating briar pipe factory—there are pipemen who have specialized interests when it comes to building their Peterson collections, if not their rotations.  Sometimes it’s the rugby-shaped COM, sometimes the Patent era, sometimes annual commemoratives like the St. Patrick’s Day.  Aside from my obsession with Shapes 4 and 9, for me it’s the milestones, and the 160th Peterson Anniversary pipes, which will be released next week (the 9th - 14th), is certainly that. The term "milestone" used here I owe to to the craftsmen I met on my first pilgrimage to the factory 2013, Tony Whelan, Sr., Joe Kenny, and David Blake in particular.  When they asked me at one point to list my favorite Peterson releases, being the amateur historian I am, and also being fairly uninformed about everything Peterson, I asked them what theirs were.   They thought about it, and then someone said said, "Well, the milestones are . . . " And then someone else would say, "Oh, and don't forget about...!" They went back, as I recall now, to the Mark Twain in 1981, and from that point their list became my list. One or two caveats before we go down this road.  As there are obviously really important shapes that were made before this "Milestones Collection," a definition is in order.  Going by the heuristic suggested by Whelan, Sr., Blake and Kenny, a milestone release is one either commemorating an event in the past, celebrating an anniversary in the present, or both.  I've slightly expanded their original list, but I think they'd approve.   Hallmark Silver Cap & Chain System (1974). The first and almost completely unknown milestone (at least to us until PPN's No-Pulitzer-winning Post #213 way back in 2021), was the 1974 Hallmark  Silver Cap & Chain, which was released in what seems to have been fairly small numbers, going by the puff advertising released through K&P's own Associated Imports here in the US. What is certain is that Peterson did some amazing blast and sterling work (okay, the caps were outsourced) as well as release some great smooths in the 9s and 20s. Peterson had given some thought to windcaps between the original style shown in the 1906 catalog and the 1974 reissue, figuring out that attaching the chain to the stem was a really bad idea.  And however inconvenient it may be to those who find they relight their pipe more than once or twice, you've got to admit the Hallmark Silver Cap & Chain gets a solid 10 for looks. It was widely reported that the smooth version of the pipe would levitate, so that no pipe rest was ever necessary. Seeing is believing.  Or is it the other way around? More…