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Page 12 The Antique Shoppe December, 2019
The Antique Tobacco Pipe: An illustrated Primer

By: Ben Rapaport

The history of smoking is believed that day was extraordinary—in size,
dated to around 5000 B.C. long shape, ornamentation and décor—
before the discovery of tobacco … each different, one from another.
a history replete with accounts of Each represented an unusual or rare
natives smoking indigenous herbs and message, each intricate, fascinating,
weeds as a ceremonial or religious and unusual, each imaginatively
custom. Most contemporary western- designed and executed by myriad
world accounts agree that smoking, unknown artisans in Europe in the late
as we know it today, began with the 1700s to the early 1900s and, later,
discovery of tobacco by the Spanish GUSTAV FISCHER, 90, Jamaica Plain, MA. carved the Battle of Bunker in the United States. Today, Turkish
in the Americas and then popularized Hill on the largest carved Meerschaum pipe in the world. Including 25 craftsmen export finished meerschaum
in Europe in the 16th century which miniature soldiers, it was finished sometime in 1905. The Boston Traveler, pipes and are continuously striving
resulted in the need to fabricate a placed a value of $40,000 on it December 22, 1906. to match the dexterity and carving
device, a tobacco pipe, in which to ago by E. R. Billings, Tobacco: pipes. Meerschaum, a mined mineral talents of their Western European and
smoke Nicotiana tabacum, cultivated Its History, Varieties, Culture, of hydrated magnesium silicate, was American predecessors.
tobacco. Its generally accepted Manufacture and Commerce… discovered in the mid-17th century in I welcome the reader to the
definition is a device (1875): “Of all the various branches Turkey, became a material for tobacco wonderful world of the antique pipe
composed of three of the subject of tobacco, that of the pipes in 18th-century Hungary, and it with some artistic exemplars of
interconnected parts: history of pipes is one of the most was adopted by many pipe factories European-produced tobacco pipes in
the chamber (or bowl) interesting, and one that across Western Europe. In its day, various mediums.
which is attached to deserves every attention meerschaum was a poetic figure of Because there is a general antipathy
a hollow stem (or that can possibly be speech, described as the aristocracy against smoking, writ large, in recent
shank), and connected given. Whether considered among smoking pipes; the queen times no museum in the United States
to a mouthpiece (or ethnographically , of pipes; Venus of the Sea; White displays or hosts exhibits of antique
bit), but form did not historically, geographically, Goddess; soft and light as a fleeting pipes, but they can be seen in a
always follow function or archaeaologically, pipes dream; creamy, delicate, and sweet as virtual museum. For those who own
then or now. present food for speculation and the complexion of young maidenhood; a computer and are inclined to access
For example, in the late 20th research of at least equal importance one of the choicest and rarest gifts of Facebook—I am aware that some
century, marijuana, another weed, to any other set of objects that can be the gods; and the “apple of the eye” of folks are anti-Facebook—there is
created a need for special smoking brought forward.” the refined pipe smoker. This pipe has “The Tobacco Pipe
devices, such as the bong and assorted, In brief—omitting the ethnographic undergone the most dramatic changes Artistory,” a website
bizarre-looking ceramic, glass, and pipes from Alaska, Africa, the in its configuration and format in that an associate and I
acrylic utensils, collectively called Middle East, Far East, and South its more than 250-year history, and launched in 2011; its aims
drug paraphernalia. This century has America, the principal pipe mediums its popularity, today, has waned are education, illumination,
witnessed the rising popularity of the are the European clay, porcelain, considerably, because of and entertainment. The site is
Mideastern water pipe and hookah wood, and meerschaum introduced, a lack of skilled carvers, structured as a series of albums
bars and clubs as gathering places for chronologically, as follows: the consumer demand, and illustrating antique pipes in
group smoking. The latest smoking clay around 1600 in England, the cost. The meerschaum is many mediums other than those
rage is the electronic cigarette and, wood, porcelain and meerschaum in no longer the pipe smoker’s mentioned in this narrative, such
in some states, the establishment the 18th century on the Continent. favorite, but I invest more as amber, various metals, horn,
of vaping lounges. None of these (The corn cob was a post-Civil War ink on them in this primer, glass, ivory, bone, Catlinite/Pipestone,
utensils were designed for or practical American invention.) The clay has because collecting them and argillite, etc.; selected images include
to use to smoke the tobacco leaf! not changed its format very much other antique smoking pipes is quite a detailed description accompanied
Between the earliest recorded in the intervening years, and it is popular today. by their historical significance. I hope
history of tobacco use and today still being produced in at least Great Here’s an obtuse explanation about that readers will access this site to
are some 400 years of the more Britain, although few are clay pipe collecting pipes from Warman’s learn more about these fascinatingly
conventional custom of smoking smokers nowadays. Beginning in the Antiques and Their Prices (1987) that artistic and intricate tobacco baubles
tobacco three different ways. early 1700s, European wood turners has no substance in fact: “Although of the past that are no more. This site
Historians generally believe that the and carvers experimented with as firmly established through the efforts is ensuring that these antique pipes
cigar was invented by the ancient many as 30 different woods to find of free-lance writers, auction houses, are not relegated to the dust bin of
Mayans who would wrap the tobacco an acceptable medium for smoking and museums (but not the tobacco tobacco history.
in a palm or a plantain leaf and tobacco. In the mid-1800s, Erica industry), the collecting of antique
smoke it. The British and French arborea, the briar, found around pipes is an amorphous, maligned, and If anyone would like to contact me with questions
soldiers became intimately familiar Mediterranean coastal areas, gradually misunderstood hobby.” or comments, my email address is ben70gray@
gmail.com.
with the cigarette as they observed supplanted all those earlier woods as This is really why there are
their Ottoman Turkish comrades and the premier wood pipe medium; it is collectors of meerschaums in
Russian enemies rolling and smoking the most favored tobacco pipe among particular. Almost any motif one can
tobacco in strips of old newspaper, smokers today. The porcelain pipe, name was expressed in meerschaum,
known as papeletes. Neither the cigar popularized in Germany (Meissen, the articulation of creative and dramatic
nor the cigarette has changed its Nymphenburg and others), less so in imagery in one-of-a-kind, miniature,
configuration very much since their France (Sèvres, Mennecy and others), architectural statements. Meerschaum
introduction. fell into disfavor in the early 20th pipes and cheroot (cigar) holders of
Tobacco pipes have a very century; other than Denmark’s Royal that era summon all the magic and
fascinating history. Their significance Copenhagen, European porcelain mystique of diminutive works of art.
was best described about 150 years factories no longer manufacture The range and breadth of selection in