Peterson Christmas Pipe 2015

Here’s a sneak-peek at the Peterson Christmas Pipe for 2015, which should be getting to the States almsot any day now. Tony Whelan, Jr. at the factory says it will be available in 11 shapes: the 01, 03, 05, 106, 221, 408, 68, 69, 999, B10, and X105. I know that can’t be right—eleven shapes? Not twelve? Isn’t it the “twelve pipes of Christmas” and all that? Well, I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Maybe Peterson will order one of the limited B shapes from the workshop at the North Pole’s Sallynoggin Division between now and Christmas.

This year’s pipe has a nutmeg / gingerbread theme, elegantly understated after last year’s flamboyance, but quite welcome and expensive-looking. The color on the acrylic stem is wonderful, as you can see, and features a gold hot-foil “P” stamp. The nickel band is engraved “2015” on the underneath and features a picture of Father Christmas on top. The COM this year is done with the new laser-cutting stamp and looks very crisp on the X105 I photographed. I really like the sandblast and contrast stain—very close to that produced for the Italy-only Maigret commemorative.