Peterson House Pipe Natural Bent Smooth Oom Paul w/ Silver Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

Peterson pipes generally need no introduction, but just in case you’re unfamiliar: in 1876, a Latvian named Charles Peterson immigrated to Ireland and was hired making pipes in a workshop owned by Frederick and George Kapp. After rising through the ranks to become head craftsman, Peterson bought into the Kapp’s business, which was renamed, Kapp & Peterson (K&P). During this time, Peterson himself applied for several patents for pipe designs, including the world-famous Peterson’s System. Since then, Peterson has become one of the most recognizable names in pipe smoking and continues to produce high quality pipes from their headquarters in Dublin.

Peterson has a long history of making extraordinarily large pipes. One might even consider the company as an “early adopter” when it comes to such, having offered a limited production of “Oversize” pipes since the end of the 19th century. Today, Peterson’s largest pipes fall under the House Pipe series, one that was formally introduced around the 1980s, but whose designs have precedents established long before that inauguration. For example, what today is known as the House Pipe Bent—seen here—is the most recognizably “Peterson” design in the series, and indeed was modeled on the Oversize Bents the company sold a century earlier. Taking the form of an Extra, Extra Large Oom Paul, the House Pipe Bent is also essentially a giant Deluxe System Pipe, complete with a moisture reservoir, aluminum condenser, P-Lip button, and a “space-fitting” tenon, giving the design its signature stem “gap.”

This House Pipe is rather curious, however. For one, it’s dressed in a very uncommon Natural finish. Making a House Pipe is already difficult enough; as the size of a bowl increases, so too does the amount of briar needed to turn it, and as the amount of briar used increases, so too does the likelihood of finding disqualifying flaws halfway through that process. Even if a stummel successfully passes the gauntlet of its manufacture, there may well still be purely cosmetic imperfections in the briar that necessitate rustication, sandblasting, or, at the very least, a darker finish so that these imperfections are not too prominent. As a result, Natural finish pipes in any shape are among the rarest in Peterson’s catalog, and Natural finish House Pipes are even more so. Looking at the extremely tight, glistening bird’s-eye on this one, one can see why it did meet the standards of a Natural, though it is nonetheless a rare thing to see.

The other curious thing about this one is its silverware. As it is essentially an XXL Deluxe System Pipe, it features the series’ signature sterling silver army mount. The hallmarks on the silver, however, are quite different to the norm. Instead of a date letter, it has a second purity mark. Mark Irwin over at Peterson Pipe Notes had a writeup several years ago about a similar oversized Peterson pipe of his own, deducing that the mystery second symbol is in fact the mark used for sterling silver under the European Convention on the Control and Marking of Articles of Precious Metals. Together with the trademark “Thinking Man” engraving on the silverware, Irwin deduced that his own pipe was made at some point in the 1990s. Looking at this one, along with the box it came in, I’d wonder if that was the case for this House Pipe too.

This pipe is completely unsmoked and comes with its original box and sleeve. Some slight scratches on the silverware and the end of the shank, and minor handling marks, but the pipe is nonetheless well preserved.

Details:

Length: 7″ / 177.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.87 / 22.09mm

Bowl Depth: 2.35″ / 59.69mm

Weight: 4.3oz / 122g