There was a lot of grime on the briar that made it sticky feeling. There was a hole in the bottom of the bowl that punctured the heel. The stem was plugged as well and I could not blow any air through it. The nickel ferrule was oxidized and dirty with  grime on it and an overflow of oils from the sump. It was a mess.I called the fellow who sent the pipe and told him about the hole in the bottom of the bowl. He said it was probably the result of constant reaming with a pocket knife. Shortly thereafter, a Latvian immigrant, Charles Peterson, strolled into the Kapp workshop and declared that he could make better pipes than they could. Browse GQ Tobaccos’ range of Peterson pipes below and get in touch if you have any questions about any of our products. Charles Peterson was armed with an imaginative flair and a craftsman’s background when he took on the mission to make a better pipe. Inspired by his singular vision, Charles created the Peterson 'System' pipe in 1865 and together with brothers George and Fredrick Kapp, they pioneered a new standard of Pipes. Still remember very vividly the smell and taste of the tobacco's he used. No Meerschaum's, but a really cool carved bull, that he said was 'hotter'n hell to smoke', so it just sat on the shelf. 90% or more of the pipes sold today are carved from the root burl of the Mediterranean heath tree. It's perfect because it's extremely dense but porous, and resistant to fire. It's kind of funny to think that we use wood to create a little furnace, but I've read that you can throw a lump of briar into a roaring fire and it'll just sit there and char a little around the edges. The Peterson factory in Dublin, Ireland, has been manufacturing briar tobacco pipes since the mid-19th century. But this system turned out to be a hit for three reasons. But I think this Peterson Meershaum pipe is pretty unique. @re-engineer spotted it sitting on my file cabinet in a previous post, and I thought it might be worth a post of its own. It combines several features that might be of interest to the new pipe collector as well as the historian, and there's a fun story behind it. I knew that I was dealing with a pipe from the Specialty Line of Briars made between 1945 and the present. I have no idea how many pipes we bought on those visits as well as to the antique shop of his daughter. When we heard that it was Gene’s personal collection that was for sale and that he had passed away we decided for Jeff to go to the house and have a look. He went on January 25, 2024 to scope it out as we had seen his personal collection of pipes and there were definitely some among those well smoked old warriors that would be great to pick up. Perhaps there would even be one that could join my own collection in memory of Gene. The Peterson System is still the most popular line Peterson produce, along with the P-Lip mouthpiece. 1963, based on oral histories of old craftsmen like Paddy Larrigan and physical examples. The nickel bands, common to all such metallurgy manufacturing during these decades, were brass-plated nickel plate until the advent of an alloy base metal under the nickel plate, which seems to have occurred about 40 years ago. Many of the dome ferrules were hand-soldered, although some were pressed. The system pipe has a separate space in the pipe, where the moisture can collect, making the pipe cool and dry. A few years later the P-Lip, the unique Peterson mouthpiece, appears. With both the company has achieved many successes and prizes. It was stamped on the top and read Peterson [over] Dublin. On the underside it was stamped Peterson over three hallmarks – Hibernia seated (on the left) followed by 925 in an oval followed by an italic upper case “I”. The Hibernia stamp identified it as made in Ireland, the 925 stamp was the quality of the silver and the italic I was the year. From the chart above that identified it as having been made in 1994 – at least the band was! I have drawn a red box around it in the above photo. The chart defines the meaning of each hallmark on the silver band. This long canted looking pipe that is kind of a cutty had some burn marks on the front and back outer edge of the rim. The bowl was quite clean but I could smell the tobacco. The pipe was stamped on the left side and read Peterson’s [over] Kapet and on the right side it read Made in the Republic of Ireland.