However in defence, my knowledge is based on years of ownership and experience of the myriad selection of pipes that Peterson have produced and are still producing. I have had an extensive collection of other brands, including artisan pipes, in my collections over the years, with which to draw these comparisons. However for me have a special place and attraction.
Prices start at around $200 and rise to $800 for the Gold versions. I have adapted this section concentrating on the period following 1950, the made in the Irish Republic era and the different near modern Peterson grades and series, which should bring us up to the time period from the 1990s onward. 1895 Kapp & Peterson moved to bigger premises at 111 Grafton Street Dublin and also opened a new depot in Broad Street London.
We’ve seen enormous change in our century-and-a-half of pipemaking. Our retail store and factory have moved locations and our ownership has changed hands over the decades. In this group you will find the basic entry level pipes which many smokers desire and are most comfortable with for every day and rotation use. The two most famous and popular issues probably being the System and the Classic shape pipes.
All of the pipes in this group can be purchased for relatively little cost and probably accounts for the majority of Petersons world wide pipe sales. There are many peterson pipes with sterling silver bands that do not have hallmarks though, even some in the Premier and Deluxe grades. In the 1960s Peterson hallmarked all gold mounted pipes but apparently they used their own marks on silver.
These were new and different not so much from the point of view of the pipe as a smoking tool, but from the spirit with which they were (and are) produced and offered for sale. This period spans almost 110 years peterson pipes of history, and is difficult to reconstruct due to a lack of documents, so dating has to rely on a series of features found on the models. The features to be considered leads to the identification of four eras.
It was first issued to honour Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous fictitious detective character, Sherlock Holmes. Holmes is perhaps the most famous pipe smoking character in fiction. Peterson initially graded their mass -produced System pipes, i.e., regular catalogue pipes (in descending order) “Deluxe”, “First Quality”, “0” grade, “2nd grade”, and “3rd grade”. You will also find old Peterson Systems stamped System 4 or System 5. The shape number is also indicative of briar quality; for example, 364 is Peterson’s 3rd quality shape number (the 2nd quality sister pipe is a 314).
On 18th April 1949 the Republic of Ireland was proclaimed, now completely independent. Since then there have been no further variations in the country of origin stamp. When collecting pipes, it is almost impossible, and it would be a pity, to steer clear of Peterson pipes. Each year since then, Peterson has continued to issue through it’s many global retailers, a Christmas pipe, now known as a “Holiday Season” issue. My recent enquiry to Peterson’s Dublin factory, has born fruit, those magicians have just returned the pipe with it’s newly restored, made to measure, black acrylic saddle stem. I am very pleased with the new replacement stem, as I consider this to be a very significant pipe from Petersons wonderful past.
Within a year, Frederick employed a young Latvian woodworker named Charles Peterson to help with production and repairs. Now, back to the present, after 150 years since the firm’s establishment. Looking back at the history of K&P, it seems that there is an evident point that marks the separation between the long history of the firm in the hands of Kapp/Peterson and the shorter, but no less interesting period that followed.