Peterson Kapet

I doubt he’s thinking of it this way, but Todd Becker of eBay’s deadmanpipes has donned a Christmas-in-July Santa suit to put some cheer in the summer doldrums of every Pete Freek’s pipe: he’s given his blessing to allow me to digitize and post for download a rare and important Rogers Imports Peterson catalog from 1939. Intended for retailers, the catalog fills a much-needed gap in our understanding of the shape chart between Peterson’s own 1937 and 1945 catalogs. The catalog documents the early days of Roger’s distribution of Kapp & Peterson in the US. As we discuss in The Peterson Pipe, Rogers Imports was responsible for laying the foundation for Peterson’s enduring popularity as a marque here in the US, creating unique lines and marketing them individually (see pp. 155-57, 323-24). The "Captain Peterson" story is told in the Peterson book. Look for it! Harry L. Rogers had applied to the US Patent Office on December 2, 1935 to use “Peterson” as a trade mark, and then again on January 1, 1938 to use “Shamrock,” which suggests that Rogers Imports became Kapp & Peterson’s US distributor at some point in 1935 and had launched the Shamrock line by 1938—the first year of Peterson’s Éire era (1938-48). The 1939 copyright date seen at the bottom of page 2, in conjunction with the printing code on the inside back cover (“A B C 5th EDITION”) suggests there were four previous catalogs. Rogers offered seven Systems in the Standard grade: 363 (today's 313), 359 (the old 309), 362 (312), 364 (314), 358 (the old 308), 357 (307) and 356 (the old 306). When the Peterson book went to press in late 2018, we only had a limited understanding of when the Rogers-Peterson lines began, but this catalog is proof that the Killarney, Sterling Silver and Shamrock lines were being made for Rogers at least as early as 1939 and probably 1937, judging from the trademark application dates. It also documents Kapp & Peterson’s manufacture of natural or "virgin briar" (unstained or barely stained) lines in both the Dublin and London factories. I’m also happy to report that a few revisions of the book are now in order. That didn’t take long, did it? So get out your pencil, it’s time to annotate your copy: (1) The Croydon Square origin date is given as 1949 in the book, as we only had an RDTA Almanac an unhallmarked specimen to go by. But now—surprise!—it’s clear that the line was being made as early as ’39. (The similarity between the name of Croydon Square and Trafalgar Square also has me wondering if the latter didn’t replace the former at some point.) (2) We can also pencil in ’39 as the earliest documented date (so far) for the Captain Pete.  (3) The ad copy in the catalog also suggests that, at this date, the line was made exclusively at the London factory. (4) And if that’s not enough, at the beginning of the "N" section in…