The Peterson Darwin Series and the B42 Shape

The Darwin series is a commemorative line the Irish maker Peterson released in 2009. The series was prepared for the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species. Bearing the name of a scientist sets it apart from Peterson's other commemorative releases, which are otherwise dedicated to literary and historical figures.

B42: the Series' Shape

The bowl designed specifically for the series carries the code B42. It is a thick-walled, oversized bent apple — that is, a curved, apple-bowled shape angled forward. In size it sits at the upper end of Peterson's System bowls, and the shank has been left correspondingly thick to match that volume. This large stance is cited as the main feature that puts the series outside the interest of smokers looking for a light, small pipe.

One research series tracking Peterson's molds argues that the shape code was not tied to a single mold over time. According to this, while the first production runs kept to the apple form, later batches produced examples closer to a brandy shape, with a stockier bowl. Because the dates behind this claim cannot be cross-checked against independent records, no year is given here; the reader should simply keep in mind that two pipes stamped with the same code can differ noticeably from one another.