Reflections on the Trade: Random Pipe and Tobacco Facts and Factoids of Yesterday: Difference between revisions

''By Ben Rapaport''

We read, we hear and we see stories and reports daily, lots of information that, sometimes, we don’t know if we should believe. That’s probably why the mantra “don’t believe everything you read” was coined. And it’s certainly true that some of what’s been written on the interrelated topics of tobacco, pipes and pipe smoking throughout time is pure bunk, or what I call, lispingly, myth-understanding: the story of Karl Kovacs, the Hungarian cobbler credited with having carved the first meerschaum pipe; raw meerschaum coming from the sea; and where and when briar was first used for pipes, are just three tall tales that come to mind. From my own research in this field, I frankly believe that, generally, the stuff written way back when is often more accurate and factual than some of what’s in print today. Why? Those who were recording and reporting years ago had firsthand, personal knowledge, and they most often penned eyewitness accounts. From some of the recent stuff I have been reading in books, feature articles in journals and on the Internet, it looks like a few of today’s pipe pundits, talking tobacco heads and briar bloviators are being blasted for exaggerating, embellishing, distorting and taking old information out of context to suit their own purposes. Much of it cannot stand close scrutiny! (If I had a dime for everything I have been reading on the Internet about pipe lore these past few years that’s nowhere near ground truth, I could probably buy my own space shuttle.) However harmless or unintentional this shameless reporting, the end result is that today’s “new kids on the (briar) block” could start off with all the wrong facts about the evolutionary history of pipes and tobaccos, although most everything in the production and consumption of both has changed—for the better, of course—since then.

So, what I offer herein is a mix of quotations, randomly selected statements found in print in an assortment of mostly obscure source material from the past and a few quotations from the near-distant past. They are organized topically, e.g., pipes, tobacco, etc. What follows is a collection of fragments lifted from the literature that, I believe, when collectively distilled, paints a rather exacting portrait of the times. My only objective in this compilation is to present some (intellectual tobacco) food for thought, grist for your mental mill, something to exercise and stimulate your gray matter, round out your education and, maybe, fill in a few blanks in your knowledge kit. After all, history is only history if it’s accurate, and it is usually best told through the first-person accounts of those who were there, the eyewitnesses, so to speak, who experienced firsthand the early days of the trade. You are what you know, and in the words of Virgil, “rerum cognoscere causas”; one needs to know the causes of things. So, here are quotations from some who knew or claimed that they knew. There’s something for everyone in the snippets that follow.

Here’s one for starters: “Your briar pipe is, perhaps, the most popular on earth, because it will stand more abuse, give better service, is cheaper and more portable than all others, and still is a good-looker. A so-called briar pipe can be bought for twenty-five cents—but an expert won’t advise it. Pay more and get a better one. Eschew the carved ones—they are pitfalls.” (“Pointers on Pipe Smoking,” The Tobacco Worker, Vol. 17, No. 7, July 1913, 11)

Now here’s a very early description of a briar pipe that denotes its earliest composition: “The ‘briar-root’ pipe, mounted with silver, and having a goose’s leg-bone for the stalk, a glass mouth-piece, and a cushioned case for carrying the same, comes to little less than one pound sterling, and would be considered reckless trading, if parted with for less than five or ten shillings.” (A. Forsyth, “The Price of Tobacco,” The British Farmer’s Magazine, Vol. XLVI, 1864, 413)

“Ten or fifteen years ago the majority of briar pipes smoked in England were made in France and Germany, but English manufacturers now supply their own land and other countries with briars at cheaper prices. About 40 tons of briar-root are imported to London annually. Nuremburg and Ruhla do a big trade in briars, the average annual output from each place being 500,000 pipes.” (W.A. Penn, The Soverane Herbe. A History of Tobacco, 1901, 170)

Brief and to the point: “Yet it was until 1879 that a Frenchman came to England to make the first briar pipe.” (The Geographical Magazine, 1965, 719)

“Calabash pipes made from the imported South African gourds are the hope of smokers for the future; they have been the fashion in England for some time and are coming into vogue in America. Meerschaum deposits are becoming exhausted, but pipes made from the imported gourds are almost as expensive, and seem to be as satisfactory.” (Guy Elliot Mitchell, “To Grow Your Own Meerschaum,” The Technical World Magazine, Vol. XIII, No.1, March 1910, 440)

I ask the reader, tongue-in-cheek: Is it possible that this British soldier [identified elsewhere as Tommy Atkins] might be a direct descendant of Karl Kovacs, who “invented” the first meerschaum pipe, and is Tommy related to that pipe repairman in St. Claude who, instead of repairing a French envoy’s damaged meerschaum pipe, made a briar pipe for him instead? He who believes in this tale of the calabash also believes in the Easter bunny, tooth fairies and winning the really BIG lottery!)

“There is no doubt that the industry of colouring meerschaum pipes was, and probably is still, thriving in Paris. I remember, when living in one of the streets surrounding the Palais-Royal, to have seen opposite the house in which I lived a man, with his window open, smoking all day long and all the year round curiously elaborated meerschaum pipes. I met him one day, and could not help asking him how he could resist such inhalation of nicotine. He told me he was a professional ‘meerschaum colourer’ for the account of Madame Hubert, an extensive pipe-dealer in the neighbourhood. He was paid a yearly salary of 1500 francs, and supplied gratis with tobacco.” (“Very Like ‘Smoke,’” Notes and Queries: A Medium of Inter-Communication for Literary Men, Readers, Etc., Fourth Series. Volume Third, June 12, 1869, 567)

A final factoid on meerschaum comes in the form of an interesting quotation from the author of The Tobacco Pipe Manufacture, Pipe Clays and Meerschaum, John George Reynolds, who, in the last paragraph of his lengthy treatise, states: “It may not be out of place to add that the writer was the first Englishman who ever imported or manufactured meerschaum into the United Kingdom.” (Peter Lund Simmonds [ed.], The Technologist. A Monthly Record of Science Applied to Art, Manufacture, and Culture, Volume III, 1863) (I have read nothing elsewhere to corroborate or refute this claim.)

“Russia and Scandinavia, on the contrary, have a curious arsenal of smoking implements. The Siberian pipes in ivory, in which the inhabitants of certain districts smoke dried poisonous mushrooms; the pipes of the Cossack of the Don, with his steel (cased) in leather attached to the stem. Pipes of graphite of the Oural; the small metallic pipes of the Laplanders.” (“Report on Tobacco Pipes,” The Journal of the Society of Arts, Volume XXI, from Nov. 22, 1872, to Nov. 14, 1873, 68)

“But the ornamented pipe, made of rare kinds of wood, agate, amber, crystal, cornelian, ivory, meerschaum, or various kinds of pure or mixed metals, and curiously and artistically carved and adorned, becomes a costly object of virtu. The pipe has always been a political symbol in France during the revolution, being furnished with figures and inscriptions illustrative of the popular feeling; and in Germany all the quaint imaginings of Teutonic diablerie appear in the grotesque designs of the pipe-makers.” (“Tobacconalia,” The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, Volume LIV, November 1859, 534–535)

The following firms received awards for their tobacco pipes: (a) Nax, Kuhn, & Silberman, Philadelphia; (b) Fred. Julius Kaldenberg, New York; (c) Wm. Demuth & Co., New York; (d) Bernstein Brothers, Ostrolenka, Lomza, Russia; (e) Baudier, Ulrich, & Co., Paris, France; (f) Widow Hasslauer & de Champeaux, Givet, France; (g) Gebhard Ott, Nuremberg, Germany; Arnold Trebitsch, Vienna, Austria; (h) Franz Heiss, Vienna, Austria; (i) Hermann Kemperling, Vienna, Austria; and (j) P. Goedwaagen, Gouda, Netherlands (United States Centennial Commission, International Exhibition, 1876, Reports and Awards, Volume V, Groups VIII–XIV, 1880, 70–71)

“He [Sir Walter Raleigh] might have also distributed some of the gadgets that made the pastime of pipe smoking so intricate an endeavor, such as ‘a metal stopper to press the tobacco into the bowl, a gold or silver pick to cleanse the bowl, a knife to shred tobacco … a scoop for loose tobacco, and whatever else appealed to the playboy as necessary.’ The latter perhaps included boxes in which a person carried tobacco and tongs to transport it from box to bowl. In fact, after a time, ‘the average gallant required so many smoking accessories … that a dedicated manservant was needed to carry them.’” (Eric Burns, The Smoke of the Gods. A Social History of Tobacco, 2007, 24)

(From Matthew Hilton … to Hans Brinker.) “Every man of them had his tobacco pouch. Some carried what might be called the smoker’s complete outfit—a pipe, tobacco, a pricker with which to clean the tube, a silver net for protecting the bowl, and a box of the strongest of brimstone matches.” (Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker, Or The Silver Skates, 1865, 245)

“A true collection ought to have—and a true collector is usually aroused by—an element of the hunt. In this sense, a collection of Dunhill pipes is not, technically, a true (or better, pure) collection. One could, after all, with enough money, simply walk into Dunhill’s, order the full line of the company’s pipes, write a check, and be done with it. A true collector is excited by the rarity, above all by the apparent inaccessibility, of the objects of his desire.” (Joseph Epstein, A Line Out for a Walk. Familiar Essays, 1992, 134)

“The habit of smoking with pipes spread with incredible rapidity; and among the various peoples the pipe assumed special characteristics, and its modifications became the medium of conveying social, political, and personal allusions, in many cases with no little artistic skill and humour. The pipe also became the object of much inventive ingenuity, and it varied as greatly in material as in form—wood, horn, bone, ivory, stone, precious and other metals, amber, glass, porcelain, and above all clay being the materials employed in various forms.” (“PIPE, Tobacco,” The Encyclopædia Britannica. A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and General Literature, Volume XIX, 1890, 111)

“The second place winner kept his pipe going an hour and fifty minutes and the third one hour and thirty-five minutes.—Chicago Tribune.” (Gardening, Volume XV, Sept. 15, 1906, to Sept. 1, 1907, 77)

“On account of free trade in England this is the only industry—the manufacture of smoking pipes in meerschaum, briar, and applewood—that is not carried on in that country; their wants are all supplied by the three countries above named [France, Germany, and Austria]. …. Nearly all the work, with the exception of boring and drilling the cavities for holding the tobacco, is manual labor on wood pipes, and on meerschaum pipes skilled hand labor entirely. …. Not only does this particular industry suffer, but a great many connected with it. I will name a few. …. Now come the manufacturers of rubber mouth-pieces, the zylonite and celluloid factories, horn tips, amber, etc. Then come the metal workers who produce the bands, covers for pipes, chains, and screws, and all the paraphernalia necessary in order to finish the pipe before putting it on the market. Then come the sandpaper manufacturers, of which a large quantity is used in the manufacture of wood pipes; varnish-makers, manufacturers of oil for the polishing of pipes in connection with pumice stone; also wax and paraffine for boiling meerschaum pipes, and the shave grass used to produce the fine polish on the meerschaum pipes, was formerly all imported from Europe, but is now produced in the Connecticut Valley, Long Island, New Jersey, Maryland. Paper-box makers, paper-makers, lithographic printers for printing labels, which is quite a large item in the expense of every manufacturer …” (“Pipes and Smokers’ Articles. Statement of F.J. Kaldenberg, of New York,” Testimony Taken by the Subcommittee on the Tariff of the Senate Committee on Finance, Part II, 1888, 848–849)

And talk about production statistics, considering the time frame, the following numbers are staggering: “A Ruhla [Germany] specialty is the meerschaum pipe, and with it goes hand in hand the manufacture of pipe stems, pipe lids and mountings, cigar holders, and mouthpieces. The annual output averages about 27,000,000 pipe lids, 19,000,000 pipe cases, 15,000,000 pipe stems, 10,000,000 mouthpieces, 10,000,000 porcelain pipe bowls (covered), 5,500,000 imitation and 540,000 genuine meerschaum pipes with amber mouthpieces, 5,000,000 wooden pipe bowls, and 15,000,000 completed pipes—a production of the value of about 6,000,000 marks ($1,428,000) per annum.” (United States Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Manufactures, Monthly Consular and Trade Reports, No. 319, April 1907, 216)

“To Remove a Broken Amber Pipe Stem.—When an amber pipe stem is broken off the amber part of the stem is very likely to stick in the bone sleeve, and if one attempts to take it out by force the bone sleeve will probably be twisted out of the neck of the pipe. To overcome this difficulty soak the broken stem and sleeve in alcohol. This will soften the amber stem slightly, and it can then easily be unscrewed from the sleeve.” (“Practical Hints,” Meyer Brothers Druggist, 1912, 242)

“Imitation Amber of pyroxylin plastic is exclusively used for the bits of pipe stems, and consists of ordinary plastic containing yellow to brown dyestuffs, pieric acid, ammonium pierate or the sudan series of yellow, gold and brown dyestuffs being used to impart the desired shade. The dyestuffs are dissolved in the alcohol added to the camphor before conversion of the pyroxylin. In natural amber and other fossil resins appear small translucent or opaque patches, usually of a lighter color than the resin in amber, due to the crystallization of succinic acid. To imitate this appearance, lighter-colored plastic in small pieces and containing pigments is rolled with the amber-colored sheets. The reason for the tendency of some manufacturers’ products of this material becoming cloudy progressively after long standing has never been satisfactorily explained.” (Edward Chauncey Worden, Nitrocellulose Industry, Volume Two, 1911, 691)

“I entered a tobacconist’s, in a narrow street behind the high church, and asked to look at a pipe. I never saw such a pipe-shop in my life. It seemed as though ten thousand Haarlem organs of tobacco pipes, rolled into one, had been stacked in the narrow magasin. Chibouques, narghilés, hookah, or hubble-bubbles; cherry-stick pipes, with amber mouth-pieces; porcelain pipes, with views of Switzerland and the scantily-arrayed sultanas painted thereupon; cocoa-nut pipes, real meerschaums, sham meerschaums, cutty-pipes, St. Omer pipes, pipes culottées, and pipes virgin of essential oil; unpretending ‘yards of clay black’ pipes, white pipes, red pipes, and blue pipes hung from the ceiling, clustered in corners like the fasces of the Roman lictors, covered the counter, littered the floor, cumbered every inch of room, packed in casks and cases.” (George Augustus Sala, “Make Your Game,” Chapter II, The Welcome Guest. A Magazine of Recreative Reading for All, No. 38, Jan. 15, 1859, 28)

Up to recently, as remarked, this house had featured its Wellington pipe in particular, its trade-mark in general. But the Wellington represents not twenty per cent of the company’s pipe business. It has a long line ranging in price from as low as five cents to as high as $6 … Wellingtons used to sell for as low as twenty-five cents. Seventy-five cents is now the lowest price named in the copy.” (“‘Digging in’ for Peace. Pipe Manufacturer Is Advertising Heavily Now to Hold Markets the War Handed Over to Him Conditionally,” Printers’ Ink, Vol. CV, No. 5, Oct. 31, 1918, 46–47)

“For instance, Cope’s segmented the pipe tobacco market into Cut Cavendish for ‘hardy working men, soldiers and sailors’, London Shag for ‘metropolitans’, Tobacco de Luxe for the upper classes, and for the middle-price range there were a number of different tastes: Golden Magnet (‘sweetly soothing’), Faust (‘delicately fragrant’), Peerless (‘exquisitely mild’) and Yankee Pride (‘purifies the breath and annihilates the microbe’). (A.V. Seaton, “Cope’s and the Promotion of Tobacco in Victorian England,” Journal of Advertising History, Volume 9, No. 2, 1986, 5–26)

“The different methods of using tobacco are harmful in the following order: chewing, cigarette smoking, cigar smoking, pipe smoking, Turkish-pipe smoking.” (The Popular Science Monthly, Vol. XXVIII, November 1885 to April 1886, 568)

You may have noticed, as you read these quotations, that the primary and secondary sources cited are many and varied, proving that, in the conduct of investigative research, one never knows what one might find in print and where it might be found. I’ll keep looking and loading. Meanwhile, anyone with access to a computer can do their own search and find plenty on Google Books and Google News, but if P&T ’s readers want more from me, Chuck Stanion will certainly let me know.

[[Category:Ben Rapaport]]