140. Peterson’s Canadian Numbering: the Shape 56 Mystery Solved!
I was working on a System advertisements project yesterday evening and as I was closing up various files in Photoshop I saw, on the screen before me, the solution to the Shape 56 Mystery Al Jones presented in the last post, top line, fourth from the left:
You’re looking at a page from a c. 1975 GT&C Peterson brochure shape chart, which Steve Laug posted at Reborn Pipes in September of 2016. You’re also looking at something rather unique in the Peterson shape history: a numbering system devised at least as early as 1951 exclusively for the Canada’s Genin, Trudeau & Cie, who began in Montreal in 1889 as an importer of housewares and giftware but had by 1919 specialized in the distribution of imported smokers’ accessories [viz., Peterson] and religious articles (a winning combination, in my view).
If you own a copy of The Peterson Pipe, you can chase down several GT&C references and illustrations, including the “1300” System shape chart. Here is the Classic Range number chart from the 1951 catalog:
While Steve traced the three-digit postal code in the address to 1960-69, the Dunmore line was not in production until 1974, while the Aran XL shapes (seen on another page in the PDF) were first made in 1975. The brochure was therefore issued at some point in 1974-75.
And here’s the complete 1975 GT&C catalog as PDF:
There are, then, three numbering systems at work in Peterson history: the Dublin shape numbers, the London shape numbers and the Montreal shape numbers. That’s a lot to be keeping up with, fellas.
Thanks to Al Jones & to Steve Laug,
Rebornpipes.com
Maith thú!