Peterson Red/Black Premier Rusticated Billiard Estate Block Meerschaum Pipe, Irish Estates

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.

It is strange to say, but some of Peterson’s most collectible pipes from over the last half century were not made in Ireland—at least, not entirely. In the 1970s and ’80s, Peterson partnered with a small, but notable company on the Isle of Man (a British island that is, in this instance quite fittingly, about halfway between England and Ireland) called Laxey Pipes Ltd., out of which came a range of Peterson meerschaum pipes. These were not the first Peterson meerschaum pipes, nor were they the last, but they would nonetheless become very significant within Peterson’s history. Laxey predominantly made pipes out of African meerschaum, and indeed made African meers for Barling (by then fully into its “post-transition era”), Nording, and other pipe companies, until developments in Africa led to the abandonment of sepiolite mining operations on the continent. This looks to be an example of what Peterson and Laxey termed the “Red/Black Premier,” a silver-mounted meerschaum with a reddish, rusticated finish and fumed rim. While the bowls were carved on the Isle of man, it appears the stems were cut in Ireland, allowing the Red/Black Premier and other Peterson-brand meerschaums to carry the make’s signature, vulcanite P-lip stems.

The condition is good. Some finish fading and rim darkening. The pipe comes with its original sleeve and illustrative pamphlet for contemporaneous Peterson meerschaum pipes.

Details:

Length: 6.5″ / 165.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.84 / 21.33mm

Bowl Depth: 1.67″ / 42.41mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 54g