Peterson Horn

Many Peterson collectors have in their possession a copy of the spiral-bound photocopy Peterson’s Patent Pipes catalog which Mel Feldman at The Smoker Ltd. issued in the 1990s. Among the myriad jewels in that 1905 catalog, one of my favorites has always been the “Kaffir,” a Patent Lip pipe illustrated on p. 77, as seen in the banner above.* But before talking more about the shape I need to say a word about the name. Like the name of another of my favorite Peterson shapes, the Oom-Paul (or Hungarian, to historical revisionists), the name of the Kaffir shape carries a heavy negative racial freight. In using both words I believe it is important to stop and think about their use and to recognize the full extent of their meaning. I know a pipe-smoker who refuses to smoke an Oom-Paul because of the association of its name with “Oom-Paul” (Uncle Paul) Kruger, and I understand his reason for doing so. Yet the shape did not originate with Kruger; he merely smoked it. In point of fact, Charles Peterson was manufacturing it before Kruger was smoking it. To remove the names of these shapes from the pipe lexicon, like removing the names from history, only buries the truth. For my part, I believe it is better to smoke these shapes in full recognition of the crimes associated with their names, but to do so with humility and a determination to use them as reminders to create peace within ourselves and whenever necessary to be upstanders, and not bystanders, in our communities.   Bent Albert, Shape 268 (1937 Catalog) The Kaffir shape is often confused with shape 268, which Peterson called a “Bent Albert” in its 1947 Shape Chart. The 268, which made its first appearance in the K&P ephemera in the 1937 catalog, has an oval (rather than round) shank and squarish (rather than tapered) bowl. Nowadays the 268 is usually called a Zulu, although in the 1970s and 80s it was just as frequently known as a Woodstock, Yacht or Yachtsman. To my eye, the 268 looks like a classic English derivation of the stronger Kaffir shape.   268 in the Sterling Silver Classic Lines (Courtesy Smokingpipes) The Kaffir shape, which is known these days as a Horn or, in its more robust renditions, an Oliphant, derives from one of the earliest tobacco pipe shapes on record. My co-author Gary Malmberg calls shapes like this “tube pipes,” which are essentially graduated tubes with upturned chambers to prevent the tobacco from spilling out. As etymologists know, “kaffir” is originally an Arabic word meaning “heathen” in the sense of “non-believer.” How the word came to be associated with the shape is something shrouded in the mists of early pipe lore, but it is interesting to ponder the exotic associations this as well as Oliphant and Horn conjure.   04 Smooth (Courtesy George Fachner) 04 Rustic (Courtesy George Fachner) Peterson’s first reinterpretation of this beautiful shape reappeared quite briefly in the shape chart around…