Peterson's System 312 Large Bent Billiard, Brown Sandblast, Made in the Republic of Ireland, Tapered Vulcanite P-Lip Stem, 9mm Filter

PETERSON'S, SYSTEM, MADE IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND and 312 are stamped on the shank. This is a vintage Peterson System pipe: a bent billiard in a brown sandblast finish, with a metal band on the shank, a tapered vulcanite stem with a P-lip bit, and a bore for a 9mm filter.

It is pre-smoked and in very good vintage condition. The 312 is crisp; PETERSON'S and MADE IN THE are lighter, and SYSTEM and REPUBLIC OF IRELAND are faint.

The Peterson story is a Dublin one. The maker's own catalogue of about 2010 dates the Kapp Brothers shop to 1865, the Peterson System to 1890 and the Peterson Lip to 1898, and it names the factory at Sallynoggin and the shop at 117 Grafton Street.

In 1894 the System was defended in court. Alfred Henry Kapp, Christian G. B. Kapp and Charles Peterson, pipe manufacturers and tobacconists of Grafton Street, sued a Dublin tobacconist for copying Charles Peterson's patent pipe, the pipe "known as Kapp's pipe or Peterson's pipe". The court described the System as a reservoir in the bowl together with a tapering mouthpiece that keeps moisture from returning to the mouth, and it granted a perpetual injunction.

Two years later Peterson's 1896 catalogue, issued under the name Kapp & Peterson Ltd and naming "Peterson's Patent No. 9059", announced "our latest improvement": "an upright bore on the upper part of the lip of the mouthpiece". That is the lip later known as the P-Lip, the bit this stem ends in.

THE MARKS
- PETERSON'S stamped on the shank
- SYSTEM stamped on the shank
- MADE IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND stamped on the shank
- 312 stamped on the shank

In Mark Irwin's guide to the Peterson System shapes, 312 is the Large Bent Billiard, a number he lists from 1896 to the present, and the official Peterson shape chart places 312 in the System group. This pipe is 140 mm long, with a bowl 51 mm high and 38 mm wide.

The tapered vulcanite stem pushes into the metal band at the end of the shank and finishes in the P-lip. It is bored for a 9mm filter.

The finish is a brown sandblast over the bowl and the shank. Blasting the shaped bowl wears away the softer wood and leaves the harder growth rings standing, so every blast carries its own pattern; on this bowl the rings show as long ridges up its sides.

MADE IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND dates the pipe in broad terms. Ireland became the Irish Free State in 1922, Eire in 1937 and the Republic of Ireland in 1949, and Peterson's country stamps follow those names, so this wording belongs to 1949 or later.

THE MEASUREMENTS
- Length: 140 mm (5.51 in)
- Bowl height: 51 mm (2.01 in)
- Bowl width: 38 mm (1.50 in)
- Chamber diameter: 20 mm (0.79 in)
- Chamber depth: 41 mm (1.61 in)
- Weight: 52 g (1.83 oz)

Ships from the Faridunhill archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe. SKU: 602