Peterson: Deluxe Classic PSB (701) P-Lip Tobacco Pipe

In Peterson's 1945 catalog, the Irish marque introduced four Speciality shapes: the Barrel, Tankard, Calabash, and Belgique. The line trades Peterson's conventional shaping cues for a slender, petite disposition, a stark contrast to the robust, muscular aesthetic that dominates the Irish firm's portfolio. These are the smallest, most lightweight designs Peterson has to offer, and they've been popular favorites over the past 70+ years, with many pipe smokers devoting them to flake tobaccos. Originally, the Tankard, presented here, forwent a usual, numbered shape designation, but in 2021, the svelte and streamlined take on the sure-sitting Poker became known as the "701" on Peterson's shape chart.

As the oldest continuously operating pipe factory in the world, Peterson often draws on its historic tradition to perfectly balance modern innovation with traditionalism, and the Deluxe Classic line embodies that approach, offering a series of pipes inspired by vintage aesthetics from historic Peterson catalogs. The Deluxe Classic range showcases extra-wide bands of sterling silver, and such a style is reminiscent of early-20th-century pipe design and indicative of Peterson's renowned metalwork, calling to mind patent-era Peterson pipes and creating a look that's classically Peterson in the same vein as many of their Pipe of the Year releases. Unlike those yearly editions, though, the Deluxe Classic series brings this retro motif to Peterson's regular-production lineup, limited only by the line's standards for briar quality. The luxurious silver accents combine beautifully with stummels selected specifically for their superior grain, with this example dressed in the dark stain and stunning texture of the PSB-grade sandblast — a designation that commends sandblasted pipes of exceptional grain. The Deluxe Classic series is one of Peterson's high-grade lines, composed entirely of non-System shapes but with many still featuring the patented P-Lip mouthpiece, lauded for distributing smoke evenly across the palate.

In 2019, Peterson overhauled its sandblasting process by adopting a more intimate, artisan-style setup that now allows the marque's craftsmen to sandblast pipes individually and with more control. This new process yielded such exceptional results that Peterson created a special stamp to further distinguish pipes that showed especially choice, grain-defining sandblasts: the PSB grade. While the Supreme is still the highest designation for Peterson's sandblasted pipes, the PSB stamp denotes sandblasted bowls of exceptional quality and character and remains a rare honor in its own right, with only 1% of Peterson's regular production pipes earning the designation. This is truly a special piece and represents Peterson's new standard for the sandblasted pipe.