Thursday, October 15, 2020

PETERSON'S JEKYLL & HYDE PIPES


Back in June I published a post that introduced the Peterson Dracula line of pipes. Now, Peterson has released a line of briars that are inspired by the tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

The smokingpipes.com website carries the full line and I can tell you that they are a great mail order company to do business with.

NOTE: Pipes like these are generally made in limited editions. Sell-through can be pretty fast for the more popular brands and shapes.


From the website:
The sepulcher creaks open revealing a shadowy door frame. Broken moonlight bathes a cracked-stone staircase descending into the abyss below, littered with rodents' remains. An aroma of smoke and antiquity wafts from the looming depths, beckoning you to investigate. Inching forward, you're enveloped by darkness punctured only by the miniscule sphere of light emanating from your outstretched lantern, illuminating each step in front of you but offering no glimpse of what skirts and skitters in the surrounding blackness. 

A wide room opens before you cluttered with tables, test tubes, beakers and burners, candelabras, and an open coffin. At the end of the room, opposite the staircase, a stone altar beckons. Atop its weathered surface lay two pipes — one dressed in ebony with a stem of swirled ink and blood-red, the other marked by smooth and rusticated finishes for contrasting personalities. A single scroll between them reads, "Make your choice."

Dracula's bloodthirst or the manic duality of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? The choice is yours. Peterson's most macabre lines come to life in October, inspired by two of literature's most ominous tales and marked by distinctly dark finishes and color palettes. This year, the Dracula and Jekyll & Hyde series seize additional shapes from Peterson's chart, including the iconic 999, 80s, and 150 designs.
Jekyll & Hide or Dracula? Make your choice, or reap the benefits of both… The scroll didn't say to choose only one… Experience the eerie with 60 new Dracula and Jekyll & Hyde pipes from Peterson on site now.


About Peterson Pipes:
The oldest continuously operating pipe factory in the world, Peterson produces some of the most recognizable and iconic pipes on the market. They've been featured in exhibitions, films, and television shows for the past century; many famous writers, artists, and inventors smoked a Peterson pipe, including Mark Twain, whose love for his System pipe is still perhaps unparalleled to this day. Even those uninvolved in our hobby likely think of a Peterson when asked to imagine a pipe. And all because of the functional design of the marque's most important contribution to the history of pipemaking: the System Pipe.

In 1874, Frederick Kapp opened a tobacco and pipe shop in Dublin; within a year a young Latvian woodworker named Charles Peterson was employed there. During his first years with the Kapps, Peterson made and repaired briar and meerschaum pipes, thinking critically about how to improve their design. In 1890, after 15 years of handling and repairing multitudes of pipes, Charles secured a patent in his own name, titled "A certain new and useful improvement in Tobacco-Pipes," introducing a unique system comprised of a higher draft hole and a moisture reservoir bored into the shank and transition of a briar pipe. Over the next eight years, Charles continued to refine his System, applying for and securing patents for a graduated bore mouthpiece (1891), and a unique button design known today as the P-Lip (1894-1898).

Charles Peterson's patented System isn't just a novelty offered by Peterson; it is the Peterson pipe. Its engineering and overall design are intertwined with the marque's foundation and raison d'ĂȘtre. They're the invisible source behind Peterson's unique Irish aesthetic — its muscular shank and transition, tubular profile, and generous bend. Over the last 120 years, Peterson has evolved and adapted to suit modern tastes, maintaining an expansive regular production shape chart, while also ushering in new series like the celebrated Sherlock Holmes line, as well as special edition releases like the annual St. Patrick's Day and Christmas pipes. Yet Charles Peterson's intention and original design language is preserved in each piece to leave the factory.

And while you're at it, don't forget to order some tobac for your pipe. Cult's Blood Red Moon is a popular seller.

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