The CPCC Doctor and Master of Pipes Awards: They’re Not Forever Programs: Difference between revisions

At the 2014 InterTabac Show in Dortmund, Germany, a Vauen 3-D-printed pipe named “Diamond” received a special award as “…the most attractive novelty in the pipe sector.” Marcus Bruckner, the designer-producer of the “Diamond” was mentioned in passing. I guess that the machine trumped the inventor-maker in importance.

In 2020, I learned of an impressive distinction for someone I have known for years, Don Duco, the curator of the Pijpenkabinet, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum that houses some 30,000 pipes and related utensils. “For his long-term study of and commitment to the history of the pipe and the culture of pipe smoking, Don Duco has been granted the prestigious European Heritage Award, or Europa Nostra Award. This is the highest honour in Europe for projects and individuals committed to heritage.” (“Mr. Don Duco,” europeanheritageawards.eu). European Heritage awards are granted on behalf of the European Commission. in another unusual gesture from outside the industry, Al Pascia, an Italian pipe retailer founded in 1906, received an award from both the Lombardy Regional Authority and Milan City Council for being an historic establishment. It’s evident that in certain quarters in Europe, tobacco people are rewarded, not ridiculed or reviled. I can’t recall another person associated with tobacco in any who has received such a prestigious award from an organization or institution outside the industry as had Duco. I don’t believe that the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Historical Association, or any other U.S. organization would recognize an American of equal stature and dedication.  

For the years 1946 through 1949, Pipe Lovers magazine also created an annual “Pipe Smoker of the Year” award “…for outstanding service or achievement in the field of pipes and pipe smoking.” ''Pipe Smoker'' magazine (1983–1988) selected certain individuals to receive the “Certified Kapnismologist Award” to recognize their contributions to pipe collecting.  

J. Byron Sudbury, clay pipe collector and Registered Professional Archaeologist, began field work as a teenager and has been very prolific ever since. His lifetime oeuvre consists of more than 50 publications. He has authored books (the 3-volume ''Historic Clay Tobacco Studies, Politics of the Fur Trade: Clay Tobacco Pipes at Fort Union Trading Post, and Historic Clay Tobacco Pipemakers in the United States of America''), journal articles (e.g., in ''Oceans Odyssey, The Wyoming Archaeologist'', etc.), chapters in books, bulletins, newsletters and much more about American clay tobacco pipes. In 1998, he received the Golden Trowel Award from the Oklahoma Anthropological Society in recognition of more than 30 years of research as an amateur in this specialized field.  

Awards for tobacco literature is a relatively new phenomenon. K. A. Worth’s Back from The Ashes: ''Uncovering the Lost History of G. L. Hunt and the Falcon Pipe'' (2007) received the Illinois Historical Society Book Award in 2008. Twelve years later, in 2020, Independent Publisher Books awarded the IPPY gold medal to ''The Peterson Pipe'' (2018) as “Best First Book—Non-Fiction.” It’s worthy of celebration for several reasons: crediting Briar Books Press and the two authors, but more important was saluting a book about tobacco pipes that competed with about 4,900 other submissions from around the globe. That’s a remarkable accolade in this anti-tobacco, anti-smoking climate. Who woulda’ thunk it?

==WHAT ABOUT TOMORROW?==