System pipe

Revised April 21, 2022. As all Thinking Men (most Pete Geeks) know, the first Sherlock Holmes shape from the Late Republic era appeared in 1987, marking the centenary of Conan Doyle’s Study in Scarlet. That calabash shape (“the Original,” later designated the XL12), was issued in a beautiful saddle / fishtail for just a few years and was also used as a short-lived company logo and some advertising, then disappeared with the rollout of the more familiar tapered P-Lip we see now, probably beginning with the issue of the seven-day set in 1989. In 1992, the Return of Sherlock Holmes seven-day set began its slow roll-out, commencing in 1992 and ending in 1997. Sandwiched in between, something unexpected happened—Sherlock Holmes discovered the System. SH System Window Poster There were only two SH System pipes—what I thought was the XL11 and the Baskerville. I’ve been late coming to the calabash 05 and XL5 / XL305 / XL315 / XL11 party (all the same shape, the 05 being the smaller version). After seeing an XL305 Standard System in Sherlock Holmes’ piperack in one of the early episodes of the Jeremy Brett series, I sat up, took notice, and realized I needed to change my smoking habits. Brian 500s, as he has often done, helped me out and soon I was contently puffing on my very own XL315, enjoying how comfortable it cradles in hand because of the the bell flare and how perfect the chamber is for virginias, vaburs, vapers and vaperkys. The SH System Original next to a recent XL5S Deluxe System Somehow a few weeks back I chanced onto an NOS Ebony version of the SH System and when it arrived I found myself, not dumb-founded perhaps, but certainly surprised. It isn’t the Original / XL11 at all but the smaller 05(b) Calabash! Above is a comparison of the SH Original 05 and the XL5S Deluxe Dark System. The latter is the same size and shape as its SH counterpart, the XL11, as measurements of bowl height and outer width confirm. The Ebony SH is also not the SH Original Junior, which can be measured from one at SPC. It is in fact the 05, as comparison with a recent 05 System shows (taking into account the variation due to papering): SH Original Measurements                         Recent 05 System Bowl Height: 2.08 in / 52.8mm                      1.99 in /50.55 mm Outer Diameter: 1.47 in / 37.4 mm                1.45 in /36.83 mm Chamber Diameter: 0.80 in / 20.4 mm           0.81 in /20.6 mm Chamber Depth:  1.57 in / 39.9 mm               1.52 in /38.61 mm The Point-of-Sale Counter Brochure Why Kapp & Peterson decided to go with a System version of the first two SH pipes in 1990 just a year before the original set was completed is anyone’s guess, but it was a stroke of genius as far as Sherlockians and System fans are concerned. As Pete Geeks are so often fans of the Great Detective and fans of the Great Detective so…