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A Pipe Parable in Chapter and Verse: Difference between revisions
→Chapter One. In The Beginning…
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Sometime in the early 1990s, I was visiting David Wright, Director of the Museum of Tobacco Art and History, Nashville, Tennessee, to discuss the pending formal appraisal of the Museum’s collection. Sitting in his office, I noticed several Polaroids of an assortment of pipes on his desk and asked about them. He stated that a woman in New York State sent them to see if the Museum would be interested in buying them. David was not interested and gave the Polaroids to me that illustrated six pipes: five African carved wood pipes and one bone or ivory pipe. Old bone and ivory typically exhibit striations, and it is usual for mammoth ivory to show cracks, discoloration, and inconsistencies. I was not sure of its age or its provenance. And I certainly was not sure if it was used to smoke tobacco, herbs, plants, or something else. | Sometime in the early 1990s, I was visiting David Wright, Director of the Museum of Tobacco Art and History, Nashville, Tennessee, to discuss the pending formal appraisal of the Museum’s collection. Sitting in his office, I noticed several Polaroids of an assortment of pipes on his desk and asked about them. He stated that a woman in New York State sent them to see if the Museum would be interested in buying them. David was not interested and gave the Polaroids to me that illustrated six pipes: five African carved wood pipes and one bone or ivory pipe. Old bone and ivory typically exhibit striations, and it is usual for mammoth ivory to show cracks, discoloration, and inconsistencies. I was not sure of its age or its provenance. And I certainly was not sure if it was used to smoke tobacco, herbs, plants, or something else. | ||
When I returned home, I decided that these pipes looked intriguing enough, so I called her, and advised that Mr. Wright had given me the Polaroids and that I could contact her and make an offer. I asked: “What do you know about these pipes?” Her reply: “My late husband was an antiques restorer and someone had brought them in for repair years ago.” I followed with “Is there a record of the owner’s name or when he brought the pipes to the shop?” “No,” she said. “My husband passed away before he could undertake the restoration, and the owner never returned to retrieve the pipes. I want to sell them now.” We agreed on a price for the six pipes and soon they were in my collection. | |||
When I returned home, I decided that these pipes looked intriguing enough, so I called her, and advised that Mr. Wright had given me the Polaroids and that I could contact her and make an offer. I asked: “What do you know about these pipes?” Her reply: “My late husband was an antiques restorer and someone had brought them in for repair years ago.” I followed with “Is there a record of the owner’s name or when he brought the pipes to the shop?” “No,” she said. “My husband passed away before he could undertake the restoration, and the owner never returned to retrieve the pipes. I want to sell them now.” We agreed on a price for the six pipes and soon they were in my collection. | |||
==Chapter Two. The Discovery== | ==Chapter Two. The Discovery== | ||