Peterson 160th Anniversary Sandblasted Straight Billiard 1540

• Overall Length: 138mm
• Overall Height: 47mm
• Bowl Height: 47mm
• Bowl Diameter: 40mm
• Bore: 20mm
• Weight: 57g
• Filter: None (3mm)
• Limited Edition (1540 of 2400)
• Cloth Pipe Bag Included
• Gift Boxed

A straight billiard is a difficult thing to get wrong—and an even harder thing to improve. Most makers simply leave it be. Peterson, to their credit, have spent the better part of a century and a half quietly refining it.

This 1540 sits with a touch more substance than some of its stablemates. The bowl carries a bit of extra weight, not in any clumsy way, but enough to give it a reassuring presence in the hand. It feels considered. Balanced through the shank, steady when set down, and altogether unfussy.

Peterson’s history is well-trodden ground, but worth remembering. Since 1865, they’ve approached pipe making with an engineer’s mindset—Charles Peterson himself being more interested in how a pipe smoked than how it showed off in a cabinet. That thinking still lingers in pieces like this. It’s made to be used, not merely admired.

The sandblast is honest work. No theatrics—just a proper lifting of the grain, with natural variation across the bowl. It gives you something to hold onto without feeling coarse, and it wears its finish in a way that should age rather well with regular use.

The silver band is a small nod to the anniversary, nothing more. Sensibly done.

It’s the sort of pipe I’d put in the hand of someone who’s already learnt that simplicity tends to win out in the end. And if they haven’t, it wouldn’t be a bad place to start.