Featuring a small reservoir intended to collect moisture before it reaches the smoker, the ‘System Pipe’ is designed to create a drier and cooler smoke and discourage the formation of dottle. The System Pipe is still a consistent top seller for Peterson. Peterson’s opinion is that people would get a pipe for two reasons. The first is the enjoyment you get from smoking quality pipe tobacco. The second is you get a specific pipe because of the “inherent beauty that is in the pipe.”
They soon made a name for themselves making and selling quality Meerschaum and Briar Root pipes. One day Charles Peterson walked into the Kapp Brothers’ Grafton Street premises armed with a revolutionary tobacco pipe and peterson pipes ambitious plans for the future. Peterson suggested that the brothers go into partnership with him to turn his smoking pipe into the world’s best briar pipe. Kapp and Peterson went on to become Dublin’s most fashionable and respected manufacturer and purveyor of fine tobacco smoking products. Pipe and cigar smokers would stroll down to the elegant premises for professional advice on the subtle nuances that determine a good handmade cigar or briar pipe.
His understanding that a pipe is “a consumer product” ushered in a modern era of new lines, limited edition collections and other special products that consumers love and demand. James Crean Ltd. took the helm at Peterson next and was the first to divide the brand into pieces. Recognizing the loyalty of customers to the original name, the company was returned to the historically significant moniker of Kapp & Peterson. In 1969 the last Peterson pipes to be made in England were produced. The English shop was closed and all Peterson’s were, from that point forward, made in Ireland. From 1915 through the end of World War II was a pretty eventful time for Peterson of Dublin or any other Irish company or citizen for that matter.
The Peterson brand was embraced by politicians, business leaders, sportsmen, artists and writers. Flame Grain (1997-) Smooth flame-grained with brass band 1997-c.2000, sterling silver thereafter. Stamped arched Peterson over arched OF DUBLIN over FLAME GRAIN. Black vulcanite mouthpiece, also amber coloured (2010-), P-Lip mouthpiece , hot foil stamped P.
This is evidenced from the KAPET stampings and a couple of fills in the briar surface. The COM stamp points to a period between 1895, when Peterson’s opened a shop in London, and late 1950s when this shop was closed. The Peterson pipes are some of the most recognisable pipes in the world. Of course, they did have more than 150 years to become so, but it also very much has to do with the fact that some of the shapes simply have become iconic. The Peterson system range was invented by Charles Peterson back in the late 1800’s and has been Petersons biggest selling pipe for over a century. The Moisture Trap “System” ensures a cool and dry smoker when using a bent pipe.
For me personally, the system is nice but it’s also an extra step. Laxey Pipe Ltd. marketed own brands like “Manxpipe”, “Manxman”, “Manxland” e.c. Names like “John Bull”, “White Knight” (unwaxed), “Domino” (black, or lined) indicated some shapes / colours of Laxey’s own series. The stems either showed the astronomical sign for “male” or “man” (circle + arrow), or the crest of the Isle of Man, the 3-legged X in a circle.
Better known as the P-Lip, the patented mouthpiece was designed to move smoke away from the tongue and to the top of the mouth. Although we’ve come to think of Peterson of Dublin as a thoroughly Irish brand, it was started by three immigrants, none of them Irish or even from Great Britain for that matter. The Kapp brothers, George and Frederick, were Bavarian and Peterson himself was Latvian. I knew that I was dealing with a pipe from the Specialty Line of Briars made between 1945 and the present.