Peterson at Chicago Show

Public Service Announcement COLLECTOR'S CORNER IS EXPANDING See end of post   The 2025 Chicago Show was not a show like any other, at least for the Peterson pipe community.  What you’re about to see may be the greatest gathering of vintage and new high-grade Petes ever assembled in one place in the history of the world. If this sounds like hyperbole, it’s really not. It was a treat to bring home  fresh-roasted beans from the show, as coffee is nearly as important to me as Peterson pipes. The 417 Dublin & London is from the vast collection of the late Tony Soderman, “Mr. Can,” whose daughter I was fortunate to meet at the show and who found for me this wonderful memento of Tony, one of the Great Men of the pipe smoking world who dearly loved Peterson and brought literally suitcases (eight or ten) of estate pipes to the Chicago show for many, many years. You may want to brew a fresh pot before we begin. For myself, I still have some of the beans I bought from the 10 Kids Coffee Co., who shared a table with their Dad, pipe maker Jeremiah Sandahl (his pipes can be seen on Instagram). If you’ve ever had a pot brewed from whole beans roasted just a few days ago and ground right before brewing, you’ll know why the 10 Kids’ coffee was amazing.  I’m hoping they’ll expand their efforts at next year’s show and not only offer beans and samples of their fresh brew, but sell it by the pint, since Iwan Reis no longer provides coffee service at the show. The nearest approach to it was the 2019 show, where Gary Malmberg, Gigi and I launched The Peterson Pipe: the Story of Kapp & Peterson. Gary brought a collection assembled over a number of years precisely for the book project focusing on Petes from the Patent through Early Republic, while I brought pipes from the Late Republic to the end of the Dublin era in 2018. Then as now Glen Whelan represented Kapp & Peterson with an elegant table, including the 2018 9BC POY, and Josh Burgess personally carried Frederick Kapp’s Exhibition Medal from Dublin to the show for our display cases at the Pheasant Run show. As wonderful as our display was, it was topped just a few weeks ago by the efforts of Lance Dahl, James Walsh, Dan Chasin, Ken Sigel and Glen Whelan. That's PSOI's Dan Chasin (left) and of course, Glen Whelan and Sykes Wilford. Glen brought the finest collection of Silver Cap Natural Systems and Natural Classic Range pipes I’ve ever seen, each having such incredible grain that only seeing is believing. Fortunately for the blog, some of the Silver Cap Systems didn't go back to Ireland but appeared at SPC on last Thursday's drop: See what I mean? As if that weren’t enough, Glen brought some 4S pipes that he said were unique to the show: two Barley sandblasts, two Ebonys, and a…