Peterson of Dublin Aran B11 Smooth Volcano Sitter Unsmoked Vulcanite Pipe

Peterson in script, OF DUBLIN beneath it and ARAN below that, with B.11 on the shank and the P on the stem: this is a brand-new Peterson Aran B11, a smooth volcano sitter on a tapered vulcanite stem with a fishtail mouthpiece.

It is unsmoked and has no filter. ARAN and B.11 read clearly in the close-ups; Peterson is legible, and the small capitals of OF DUBLIN are softer.

Peterson's own catalogue of about 2010 traces the house to the Kapp Brothers shop in Dublin, dated 1865, with the Peterson System following in 1890 and the Peterson Lip in 1898; at the time of that catalogue the factory stood at Sallynoggin and the shop at 117 Grafton Street. How close the Kapps and Charles Peterson worked shows in a court case of 1894, in the British Newspaper Archive: Alfred Henry Kapp, Christian G. B. Kapp and Charles Peterson, pipe makers and tobacconists of Grafton Street, sued a Dublin tobacconist for copying Peterson's patent pipe - the pipe "known as Kapp's pipe or Peterson's pipe" - and the court granted a perpetual injunction.

Two years later the firm, as Kapp & Peterson Ltd, printed "Peterson's Patent No. 9059" in its 1896 catalogue and described its latest improvement, an upright bore on the upper part of the lip of the mouthpiece - the lip later known as the P-Lip. The P on the stem remains the house mark.

THE MARKS

- Peterson (script) / OF DUBLIN / ARAN stamped on the shank
- B.11 stamped on the shank
- P on the stem

The B before the shape number marks Peterson's newer bowl designs, a series that also holds the B10 and the B42 Darwin, and on the official Peterson shape chart the B11 sits in the Classic Range group. Aran is one of the lines listed for sale in the maker's catalogue of about 2010. A volcano bowl is wide at the base and draws in toward the rim, and as a sitter this pipe has a flat base that lets it stand upright on a table. Its chamber is a wide 29 mm. The tapered stem narrows evenly toward the bit and curves gently toward the smoker, and the fishtail at the tip spreads the draw across the tongue.

The finish is smooth, with lines of straight grain and patches of birdseye on the bowl and shank. Straight grain comes from cutting the block along the growth rings of the wood; birdseye appears where the same rings are cut end-on.

No date mark is stamped on this pipe, so no year is given.

Condition: brand new, unsmoked.

THE MEASUREMENTS

- Length: 147 mm (5.79 in)
- Bowl height: 47 mm (1.85 in)
- Bowl width: 46 mm (1.81 in)
- Chamber diameter: 29 mm (1.14 in)
- Chamber depth: 41 mm (1.61 in)
- Weight: 56 g (1.98 oz)

Ships from the Faridunhill archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe. SKU: 576