165. Getting Bent: The Baskerville at 30
No, not “get bent” in any of the scurrilous definitions you may be thinking of from a post-New Year’s residual haze, but as in “smoking a bent pipe.” As in—and here’s a question for your New Year—are you a clencher or a cradler? That is, do you primarily clench your pipe between your teeth or hold it in your hand? Most of us do both of course, but do you find yourself more in one camp or the other? My hunch is this: if you’re primarily a Peterson smoker, then you clench more than if you’re, say, mostly an artisan or high-grade pipe smoker; if you smoke mainly bent pipes, then you clench more than if you smoke straight pipes; if you’re older, then you clench more than your younger brothers (and sisters) in the briar. Do chime in in the comments section on any or all of these points, because I’m curious. I will say that I believe Peterson historically has been more focused on bent pipes and clenching than on straight pipes and cradling. Recently I had an opportunity to add one of Peterson’s rare Sherlock Holmes Naturals to the rotation in one of my all-time favorite shapes, the Baskerville (hallmarked 2019), and thought it would be interesting to celebrate with a side-by-side comparison with a 1989 first-issue Pebble Grain Rustic. Regis McCafferty, whom many of you know, is the author of some of the world’s finest mystery-with-pipes fiction—including the Joshua Pittt Victorian outings and the hard-boiled Max Grant Nude series. He once told me that while he only has a rotation of about 25 pipes, two of them are Baskervilles, because they’re so comfortable to clench while writing.1 The Baskerville (XL12), a full-bent oom paul – rhodesian hybrid, can be dated to January 1989, thanks to the original pipe box card seen above, and was the second release in the Original Sherlock Holmes set of seven. It was an original Paddy Larrigan shape and was likely derived from this original Larrigan carving, hallmarked C for 1988, which resides in the Peterson museum: My original Baskerville was a memento from a trip to London in 2005, stopping at the old Jayems brick and mortar, which used to lie on Victoria Street between Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral in London. It was established in the mid-1980s and closed around 2007, I think, but as you can see by their sign, the proprietors were quite fond of Peterson. I came away on that trip with an original issue, D-hallmarked, 1989 Pebble Grain rustic which has been part of my rotation ever since. When I saw the new Natural SH Baskerville, it didn’t take me more than a few minutes to rally my resources and get it taken care of before it slipped away. I wasn’t thrilled by the bend, but everything else about it was singing to me in those siren tones known only to those who suffer from PAD or are recovering PADsters.2 Of course I was curious to…