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Pipe Collecting: Avocation or Vocation? (view source)

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<blockquote>Where is the line of demarcation between hobbies and ordinary normal pursuits? I have been unable to answer this question to my own satisfaction. At first blush I am tempted to conclude that a satisfactory hobby must be in large degree useless, inefficient, laborious, or irrelevant. … This, however, is serious: Becoming serious is a grievous fault in hobbyists. It is an axiom that no hobby should either seek or need rational justification. To wish to do it is reason enough. To find reasons why it is useful or beneficial converts it at once from an avocation into an industry–lowers it at once to the ignominious category of an ‘exercise’ undertaken for health, power, or profit. Lifting dumbbells is not a hobby. It is a confession of subservience, not an assertion of liberty” (Aldo Leopold, ''A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There'', 1989).</blockquote>
<blockquote>Where is the line of demarcation between hobbies and ordinary normal pursuits? I have been unable to answer this question to my own satisfaction. At first blush I am tempted to conclude that a satisfactory hobby must be in large degree useless, inefficient, laborious, or irrelevant. … This, however, is serious: Becoming serious is a grievous fault in hobbyists. It is an axiom that no hobby should either seek or need rational justification. To wish to do it is reason enough. To find reasons why it is useful or beneficial converts it at once from an avocation into an industry–lowers it at once to the ignominious category of an ‘exercise’ undertaken for health, power, or profit. Lifting dumbbells is not a hobby. It is a confession of subservience, not an assertion of liberty” (Aldo Leopold, ''A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There'', 1989).</blockquote>


Psychoanalyst Werner Muensterberger’s Collecting. ''An Unruly Passion'' (1993) is, in my view, the lodestar guide for collectors. His roster of driven acquisition-hunters includes the dedicated, the serious, and the infatuated, whose chronic restlessness can be curbed—and then merely temporarily—only by purchasing, discovering, receiving, or even stealing a new find. A more recent book is Dr. Mark B. McKinley, ''The Psychology of Collecting: Everybody Collects Something. YES You Do!'' (2015).  
Psychoanalyst Werner Muensterberger’s ''Collecting''. ''An Unruly Passion'' (1993) is, in my view, the lodestar guide for collectors. His roster of driven acquisition-hunters includes the dedicated, the serious, and the infatuated, whose chronic restlessness can be curbed—and then merely temporarily—only by purchasing, discovering, receiving, or even stealing a new find. A more recent book is Dr. Mark B. McKinley, ''The Psychology of Collecting: Everybody Collects Something. YES You Do!'' (2015).  


<blockquote>Whereas it is virtually impossible to define collecting, and, narratively speaking, to mark where an activity begins, a collecting attitude is unmistakable and distinct. Yet the definitions of collecting tend to be irremediably fuzzy … If one begins reflecting on collecting in a narrative mode, it is equally hard to say when collecting begins to be collecting, as opposed to, say, buying a thing or two ...  If the predominant value of an object or idea for the person possessing it is intrinsic, i.e., if it is valued primarily for use, or purpose, or aesthetically pleasing quality, or other value inherent in the object or accruing to it by whatever circumstances of custom or habit, it is not a collection. If the predominant value is representative or representational, i.e., if said object is valued chiefly for the relation it bears to some other object or idea, or objects, or ideas, such as being one of a series, part of a whole, a specimen of a class, then it is the subject of a collection (Roger Cardinal, ''Cultures of Collecting'', 1994).</blockquote>
<blockquote>Whereas it is virtually impossible to define collecting, and, narratively speaking, to mark where an activity begins, a collecting attitude is unmistakable and distinct. Yet the definitions of collecting tend to be irremediably fuzzy … If one begins reflecting on collecting in a narrative mode, it is equally hard to say when collecting begins to be collecting, as opposed to, say, buying a thing or two ...  If the predominant value of an object or idea for the person possessing it is intrinsic, i.e., if it is valued primarily for use, or purpose, or aesthetically pleasing quality, or other value inherent in the object or accruing to it by whatever circumstances of custom or habit, it is not a collection. If the predominant value is representative or representational, i.e., if said object is valued chiefly for the relation it bears to some other object or idea, or objects, or ideas, such as being one of a series, part of a whole, a specimen of a class, then it is the subject of a collection (Roger Cardinal, ''Cultures of Collecting'', 1994).</blockquote>
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Here’s an interview of one collector in 1949. “F. E. Rick has been collecting and smoking pipes of various sizes, shapes and composition for some 20 years, and he has over 100 pipes of his choice. …Rick boasts of a pipe collection that includes pipes as small as one-and-one half inches up to 24 to 30 inches in length, pipes that hold from a very few grains of tobacco up to one half can of tobacco, pipes made of silver with gold-lined bowl, brass, lead, briar, African ebony, hickory, clay, porcelain, corn cobs, meerschaum, calabash and other descriptions” (“Silvis Employee Has Prize Pipe Collection,” ''Rock Island Lines News Digest'', March 1949).
Here’s an interview of one collector in 1949. “F. E. Rick has been collecting and smoking pipes of various sizes, shapes and composition for some 20 years, and he has over 100 pipes of his choice. …Rick boasts of a pipe collection that includes pipes as small as one-and-one half inches up to 24 to 30 inches in length, pipes that hold from a very few grains of tobacco up to one half can of tobacco, pipes made of silver with gold-lined bowl, brass, lead, briar, African ebony, hickory, clay, porcelain, corn cobs, meerschaum, calabash and other descriptions” (“Silvis Employee Has Prize Pipe Collection,” ''Rock Island Lines News Digest'', March 1949).


Some of the following pipe collectors may be unfamiliar to you; each sought out different kinds of pipes. The earliest hobbyists on record date to the 18th century: Pierre Lorillard, Duc de Richelieu, and Prince Augustus Frederick (the Duke of Sussex). Those who followed later were England’s William Bragge, Alfred Dunhill, Roger Fresco-Corbu, Julio Mario Santo Domingo Jr., and Tony Irving. There was Baron deWatteville (known as the “Mr. Bragge of French collectors”) and Marshal Oudinot of France, Edward A. Barber, Andrew Jackson (Old Hickory), Lafcadio Hearn, George A. West, and William Demuth (“the most important pipe collection in America”).  
Some of the following pipe collectors may be unfamiliar to you; each sought out different kinds of pipes. The earliest hobbyists on record date to the 18th century: Pierre Lorillard, Duc de Richelieu, and Prince Augustus Frederick (the Duke of Sussex). Those who followed later were England’s William Bragge, Alfred Dunhill, Roger Fresco-Corbu, Julio Mario Santo Domingo Jr., and Tony Irving. There was Baron deWatteville (known as the “Mr. Bragge of French collectors”) and Marshal Oudinot of France, Edward A. Barber, Andrew Jackson (Old Hickory), Lafcadio Hearn, George A. West, and William Demuth (“the most important pipe collection in America”). Bragge’s 19th-century collection literally spanned the globe with more than 7,000 pipes acquired in one brief and energetic period of 20 years. Edward Barber’s “…collection of tobacco pipes was made for the purpose of illustrating the history of smoking in all ages and in all countries.” An unidentified 19th-century Dutch collector amassed a collection consisting of the “…common clay pipe...to the costly meerschaum…to the unsurpassable hookah, every variety of the pipe, in every variety of material, found its way to his smoking-room” (“Hobbies and Hobby Riders,” ''American Bibliopolist'', October 1872). “Every room in his (deWatteville) house is hung with pipes, arranged in all sorts of designs, crosses, stars, panoplies, branches reaching the ceiling…” (“A Great Pipe Collection,” ''The Collector'', October 1, 1890). West’s collection consisted of about 600 specimens obtained from aboriginal village sites, graves and mounds in Wisconsin. Living in Japan, American writer Lafcadio Hearn collected books and Japanese “long pipes,” those with a bamboo stem longer than twelve inches in length (Elizabeth Bisland, ''The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn'').  
Bragge’s 19th-century collection literally spanned the globe with more than 7,000 pipes acquired in one brief and energetic period of 20 years. Edward Barber’s “…collection of tobacco pipes was made for the purpose of illustrating the history of smoking in all ages and in all countries.” An unidentified 19th-century Dutch collector amassed a collection consisting of the “…common clay pipe...to the costly meerschaum…to the unsurpassable hookah, every variety of the pipe, in every variety of material, found its way to his smoking-room” (“Hobbies and Hobby Riders,” American Bibliopolist, October 1872). “Every room in his (deWatteville) house is hung with pipes, arranged in all sorts of designs, crosses, stars, panoplies, branches reaching the ceiling…” (“A Great Pipe Collection,” The Collector, October 1, 1890). West’s collection consisted of about 600 specimens obtained from aboriginal village sites, graves and mounds in Wisconsin. Living in Japan, American writer Lafcadio Hearn collected books and Japanese “long pipes,” those with a bamboo stem longer than twelve inches in length (Elizabeth Bisland, ''The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn'').  


In my lifetime, there were many whose names may be familiar to you. W. Øle Larsen and Erik Peter Stokkebye of Denmark; King Farouk of Egypt; Americans Bing Crosby, Doug Diez, Norman Flayderman, John F. H. Heide, Edward G. Robinson, Arno Ziesnitz, J. Trevor Barton and Frank Burla, all of whom got much press. Ziesnitz narrowed his interest to Japanese kiseru, kiseru-zutsu and antique meerschaum pipes. Following in Bragge’s footsteps, J. Trevor Barton favored historical pipes, such as native American, tribal, ceremonial, porcelain, ivory, and meerschaum. He amassed a huge collection along with smoking ephemera such as tobacco boxes, carved wood pipe cases, books, and tobacco advertising figures in carved wood. Flayderman’s collection consisted solely of Civil War pipes. Heide and Burla collected every sort of antique pipe.  
In my lifetime, there were many whose names may be familiar to you. W. Øle Larsen and Erik Peter Stokkebye of Denmark; King Farouk of Egypt; Americans Bing Crosby, Doug Diez, Norman Flayderman, John F. H. Heide, Edward G. Robinson, Arno Ziesnitz, J. Trevor Barton and Frank Burla, all of whom got much press. Ziesnitz narrowed his interest to Japanese kiseru, kiseru-zutsu and antique meerschaum pipes. Following in Bragge’s footsteps, J. Trevor Barton favored historical pipes, such as native American, tribal, ceremonial, porcelain, ivory, and meerschaum. He amassed a huge collection along with smoking ephemera such as tobacco boxes, carved wood pipe cases, books, and tobacco advertising figures in carved wood. Flayderman’s collection consisted solely of Civil War pipes. Heide and Burla collected every sort of antique pipe.  
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In my opinion, pipe collecting is more vocation than avocation. It’s a calling, an occupation. It’s complicated and requires decision-making. Porcelains, clays, meerschaums, old wood, briar, oddities, one-of-a-kind, antique, vintage, or new. Briar? That’s a whole new world today: factory-made, or contemporary, hand-crafted, limited-edition briars that, of late, come from almost every country. Price may be no object for some, but these artisan briars can be very pricey.  
In my opinion, pipe collecting is more vocation than avocation. It’s a calling, an occupation. It’s complicated and requires decision-making. Porcelains, clays, meerschaums, old wood, briar, oddities, one-of-a-kind, antique, vintage, or new. Briar? That’s a whole new world today: factory-made, or contemporary, hand-crafted, limited-edition briars that, of late, come from almost every country. Price may be no object for some, but these artisan briars can be very pricey.  


In an interview of Bill Unger in December 2010 for ''The Columbus Dispatch'' he said: “It’s a hobby and an obsession for many” (my emphasis). In February 2019, Mark Irwin posted: “It’s A Hobby, Not A Habit” (petersonpipenotes.org). Exactly five years later, in February 2024, Greg Pease, another pipe maven, posted: “But, pipe collecting isn’t about being rational. Pipe collecting is about passion” (pipesmagazine.com).  
In an interview of Bill Unger in December 2010 for ''The Columbus Dispatch'' he said: “It’s a hobby and an obsession for ''many''” (my emphasis). In February 2019, Mark Irwin posted: “It’s A Hobby, Not A Habit” (petersonpipenotes.org). Exactly five years later, in February 2024, Greg Pease, another pipe maven, posted: “But, pipe collecting isn’t about being rational. Pipe collecting is about passion” (pipesmagazine.com).  


On paykocpipes.com: “If you walk into any pipe store or browse for pipes online, you’ll soon realize that there are more pipes available than you could ever have possibly imagined.” Visit a weekend pipe show, and the sea of briar that you will experience is overwhelming, mind-boggling, paralyzing! So many choices, such a variety and assortment. I can’t think of more appropriate words to describe the reaction of most pipe patrons. Decisions, decisions. It’s strenuous work! How much to spend? How many to collect? Like all serious, successful collectors, a pipe collector needs a singular passion, a discerning eye, listening, negotiating, and speaking skills, critical thinking, empathy and, first and foremost, knowledge about the art and craft of pipe making. And that knowledge is found in several books that offer insight into the fundamentals of pipe making.
On paykocpipes.com: “If you walk into any pipe store or browse for pipes online, you’ll soon realize that there are more pipes available than you could ever have possibly imagined.” Visit a weekend pipe show, and the sea of briar that you will experience is overwhelming, mind-boggling, paralyzing! So many choices, such a variety and assortment. I can’t think of more appropriate words to describe the reaction of most pipe patrons. Decisions, decisions. It’s strenuous work! How much to spend? How many to collect? Like all serious, successful collectors, a pipe collector needs a singular passion, a discerning eye, listening, negotiating, and speaking skills, critical thinking, empathy and, first and foremost, knowledge about the art and craft of pipe making. And that knowledge is found in several books that offer insight into the fundamentals of pipe making.
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For me, one exemplary collector stands out, Norm Winokur. He exhibited at the CORPS show for many years with his ever-expanding collection of Rhodesian-shaped briars. To me, it was a spectacular collection: he focused on one shape, every finish, every size, and from every pipe maker … none for sale. I thought that was a brilliant concept. If anyone ever wanted to know about Rhodesians, Norm was the premier expert. On March 19, 1989, he and one of his pipes appeared in ''The Courier Post'', Camden, New Jersey.  
For me, one exemplary collector stands out, Norm Winokur. He exhibited at the CORPS show for many years with his ever-expanding collection of Rhodesian-shaped briars. To me, it was a spectacular collection: he focused on one shape, every finish, every size, and from every pipe maker … none for sale. I thought that was a brilliant concept. If anyone ever wanted to know about Rhodesians, Norm was the premier expert. On March 19, 1989, he and one of his pipes appeared in ''The Courier Post'', Camden, New Jersey.  


On pipesmagazine.com, titanicexplorer sought advice: “I just started to collect pipes. Any Tips?” Member mluag offered some common-sense advice: “Do you want to collect wide or deep? A wide collection would include some meers, some briars, some clays, some gourds, some metal...and so on. All sorts of styles and makers. A deep collection would include a single maker or company and limit collecting to the various shapes they offer to the exlusion [sic] of others.”
On pipesmagazine.com, titanicexplorer sought advice: “I just started to collect pipes. Any Tips?” Member mluag offered some common-sense advice: “Do you want to collect wide or deep? A wide collection would include some meers, some briars, some clays, some gourds, some metal...and so on. All sorts of styles and makers. A deep collection would include a single maker or company and limit collecting to the various shapes they offer to the exlusion [sic] of others.” Member stacen counseled: “Do some online research and find some of the publications and books on the hobby to get an idea of some ways to build your collection.” Some have said that pipe collecting will lead to investigating the literature about and for pipe smokers. Not always!
Member stacen counseled: “Do some online research and find some of the publications and books on the hobby to get an idea of some ways to build your collection.” Some have said that pipe collecting will lead to investigating the literature about and for pipe smokers. Not always!


Carl Weber: “The best advice for a beginning collector is to patronize reputable pipe dealers,” but that was written a half-century ago in the pre-Internet, pre-pipe show era. But there’s other advice from him quoted elsewhere. “As [Carl] Weber argues:  
Carl Weber: “The best advice for a beginning collector is to patronize reputable pipe dealers,” but that was written a half-century ago in the pre-Internet, pre-pipe show era. But there’s other advice from him quoted elsewhere. “As [Carl] Weber argues:  
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