The Case of the Confused Peterson…. (Part 1)

It was a relatively nice and unassuming day when we walked into the antique mall. I wasn’t expecting to find anything. My wife and I were mainly looking to get away from the house for a while and maybe expand her salt and pepper shaker collection. There, in the very back of the building, I found a booth festooned with ties of all types, colors and patterns. It also had a display case containing a few more ties and approximately 30 tobacco pipes. Were these more Dr. Grabows, Kaywoodies or Medicos?

The majority of the pipes were stamped Made in Denmark. Some pipes had “Made in Italy”, “Made in England” or “Made in France”  stamped on them. The brands were Savinelli, Soren, Jarl’s an even a WDC and a Kaywoodie. The one catching my eyes first was a unique looking “Made in the Republic of Ireland” Peterson Kapp-Royal 79.

Why was the Peterson unique? All the Peterson’s I’m familiar with have either sterling or nickel mounts. This one didn’t.  Instead it has a ring of beads around the face of the tenon.  Secondly, the name Kapp-Royal is stamped under Peterson. I had never heard of this line of Peterson pipes. And, third, the Peterson “P” was missing from the side of the stem, replaced instead with “IRC”. I decided to spend the $30 on this pipe.

     I also bought a freehand Søren Hand-Carved Made in Denmark pipe. That’s a post for a later time.

Desiring more information on the Kapp-Royal, I started searching the internet and found surprisingly little. The IRC on the stem was the easy part, the pipe was a collaboration of sorts between Peterson and the Iwan Reis Co. of Chicago – the oldest tobacco shop in America. To find information I reached out to Mark Irwin who writes the blog petersonpipenotes.wordpress.com. Mark also has a book on the history of Peterson pipes planned for release in the spring of 2019.

According to Mark, the Kapp-Royal started as a line of pipes made solely for Iwan Ries starting in 1969 and had stems stamped “IRC” instead of the Peterson “P.” Peterson didn’t start selling the Kapp-Royal worldwide until in the late 1970s. My understanding is that the early Kapp-Royal’s may have had the metal mounts at first. Around the same time period, Iwan Ries and Peterson introduced another line named Dunmore (or Dunmoor), similar to the Kapp-Royal but slightly less quality and without the metal mounts. The Dunmore featured the beadwork around the face of the tenon.  According to Mark, that’s what makes mine a rare pipe. It’s a Kapp-Royal with the beadwork of a Dunmore.

Mark also said the 79 is the equivalent of a 4 Patent, designed by Charles Peterson, and was later issued as a 309 Standard & Premier System, the 45 and 48 Deluxe and later on in the Classic Range as XL339 and XL3395.

Selling price:

The Kapp-Royal line sold for around $25 when they first came out and were of higher quality than the Dunmore.  Other system standards sold for around $12 at the time.

The Dunmore’s entered the market in 1971 and never had the nickel or sterling caps on the stummel. The thought behind the change was to make a pipe for people who thought the caps were “old-fashion”.

(Continued in Part 2)

© J. Gibson Creative Services. August 2018