Ben Rapaport

Ben Rapaport, courtesy PipesMagazine.com

A complete Guide to Collection Antique Pipes

For the past 50 years, Ben Rapaport has been known internationally as an avid pipe smoker, antique pipe collector, and tobacco bibliophile. He was inducted into the International Academy of the Pipe in 1985, into the Confrérie des Maîtres Pipiers de Saint-Claude, France, in 1989, and was the recipient of the prestigious “Doctor of Pipes” achievement award from the Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club in 2004.

He is the author of A Tobacco Source Book (1972); A Complete Guide to Collecting Antique Pipes (1979, 1998).

Collecting Antique Meerschaum Pipes

The European Porcelain Tobacco Pipe, courtesy Amazon.com

The Global Guide to Tobacco Literature (1989);

Museum of Tobacco History and Art Guide Book (1996);

Collecting Antique Meerschaums: Miniature to Majestic Sculpture, 1850-1925 (1999);

The European Porcelain Tobacco Pipe (2014);

Tobacco and Smoking Among The Blue and Gray (2014), available through the author, and Briar Books Press.

His sixth book, The Arts of an Addiction: Qing Dynasty Opium Pipes and Accessories (2005) was his first writing venture on a non-tobacco topic.

He is a popular lecturer at pipe clubs, his articles on pipe and tobacco history appeared regularly in Pipes & Tobaccos magazine until Spring 2019, when is ceased publication, and his articles occasionally appeared in CIGAR magazine until Spring 2011 when it ceased to be published. Achievements and affiliations include: member, Pipe Smoker’s Hall of Fame (1973); Consultant, Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society, University of Alabama (2001). As a certified personal property appraiser, Ben has conducted formal valuations of pipe collections for several museums and for private collectors.

Additionally, for the past 30-odd years, Ben has operated a special niche, mail-order business, selling rare, out-of-print, and in-print books in English and in several foreign languages on all manner of pipes and tobacco. He has prepared a "Recommended Reading List" for those interested in a rather complete bibliography of books on these two topics.

Ben Rapaport can be reached by E-mail at ben70gray@gmail.com .

Note: Ben is nearing completion on his 9th (and he reports his final) book. It will apparently be self published. The following was sent via E-mail. Please let him know if you may be interested:

Friends and acquaintances: A year in preparation, I am close to finalizing my 9th book: From the Briar Pipe of Saint-Claude to the Cigarette in World War One Trenches. An Intimate History of the Tobacco Industry, 1850-1920. It’s about a 200-page documentary. If you like to read about the evolution of the tobacco industry (writ large) in those 70 years, or you like to read about soldiers and their smokes in The Great War and how they handled tobacco under duress, this may be book for you. Intimately familiar with all the books in print on every aspect of the tobacco industry — and knowing that there is little in print about these 70 years in the U.S. and European trade, and that no one has, to date, has focused on how British, American, French and German soldiers coped with (and without) tobacco (principally cigarettes and pipes) — I felt the urge to research these two topics, and concluded that there was a colorful story to tell.

This will be my last book, my swan song in tobacco research and writing, because I am getting on in years and I am mentally exhausted after having undertaken this year-long research endeavor.

I write to you at this early stage for the following reason. It appears, as of now, that no publisher I have contacted so far is interested in taking on this manuscript. Thus, I probably will be publishing it on my own nickel, and I’ll be doing it on the cheap, e.g., soft cover, no imagery. From what I have determined, it’ll cost about $15-$20/copy, if I order at least 20 copies. Publication date can only be determined when I know there is sufficient interest to sign a printing contract for “x” number of copies. I am considering one of the more reasonable printing services: Lulu. If there is any change in price from the printer, I’ll advise so that you can decide if you still want to buy a copy.

I know all of you will want to know more, perhaps to get a sensing of its contents before you commit, but I am now trying to get a handle on how many prospective buyers I can count on in order to determine how many copies I should print. I simply want to get it published, and my intention is to sell it at actual cost (plus postage). The book could be in the mail to you before Xmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa.

The following articles are available here on Pipedia. We will be adding more to this collection, so check back soon!

• Extraordinary Ephemera: Catalogs as a glimpse into a bygone smoking era
• Relfection on the Trade: Random Pipe and Tobacco Facts and Factoids of Yesterday
• Pipemaking 101. A Bilingual Syllabus
• Pipe Bombs: good intentions, bad designs! (Spring 2019)
• My Manifesto: A Plea for Plain Talk
• Collectible Pipe-related Ephemera: Here Today, Not Necessarily Gone Tomorrow!.
• The Tobacco Pipe—Opium Pipe Nexus: Where there’s smoke, there are accessories!
• The Antique Tobacco Pipe, Invention-Function-Art (Originally Published in the Journal of Antiques and Collectibles, February 2019)
• A Reading List for the Pipe Smoker and Pipe Collector (Fall 2018)
• “A Few Good Men”, an article for Pipes and Tobacco Magazine (November, 2003). Bragge is a major focus. It is available here by permission: A Few Good Men by Ben Rapaport. A related article appears in Pipes & Tobaccos magazine, Vol. 20, No. 1, Spring 2015 "Writers’ Blocks. A survey of pipe and tobacco literature through time."
• An Historical Review of Reviews: Chronicling A Century of Magazines for the Pipe-Smoking Maven, by Ben Rapaport
• Museums With Interest In Tobacco, Compiled by Ben Rapaport (Winter 2018-2019)
• Remembering Richard Dunhill, Originally Published in Pipes & Tobaccos magazine 2016. This version is unedited.

Contributed by Yang Forcióri

Off site links

• You might enjoy listening to Brian Levine's interview with Ben on the Pipes Magazine Radio Show
• TobaccoPipeArtistory on Blogspot.com
• The Tobacco Pipe Artistory on FaceBook