MY LADY NICOTINE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 95, 16 January 1926, Page 20

MY LADY NICOTINE

THE STORY OF THE PIPE

Tiie clay pipe, which lias been dethroned by the briar, had a Jong reign. English explorers in tho sixteenth century' found clay pipes in use by the Red Indians in Virginia, aud they brought fampies back with them to serve as models for the manufacture of pipes in Englund. The manufacture of clay pipes was an organised craft in London early in tha. seventeenth century, and in IC>l9 tho guild of tobaeco-pipo makers was incorporated in tho reign of James I, but it is claimed that clay pipes were manufactured at Broseley, in Shropshire, area rlv, as 1575. Janies I tried to suppress smoking by increasing the duly on tobacco from 2d. io Gs. 104. per lb., but the effect of making tobacco dearer was to increase tho affection of the smoker for the weed. The growth of smoking is indicated by the fact, that thn manufacture of the- clay ]iipes became a flourishing trade it', tho seventeenth century in Shropshire, Staffordshire, Bristol. Hull, Winchester, and Nottingham. Tho original models underwent considerable development, the most notable feature being the long curved stem, which was subsequently carried to extreme in (he

“ciiiirciiwarditMi” tj-po. The longstemmed clay is still procurable in England and Holland, but elsewhere the clay in uso to-day is modelled on its successor —the briar. The short-stem med, plain-bowled clay is smoked in ciuntry districts in Great Britain; in Scotland it is called Hie “cutty,” and in Ireland tho “dhudeen.” But there are now only two firms in Great Britain engaged in making clay pipes; one of these is in London and the other in Glasgow. But when the clay pipe was the vogue there were fourteen factories in Bristol alone. Four years ago the kilns owned by George and Co., a firm which had been in existence for 20(1 years, closed down. The china pipe was the. first rival of Hie clay. It originated in Germany as a. successor of the painted clay and Delft glazed pottery pipes of Holland. The disadvantage of these glazed and china pipes was that they were not absorbent, and therefore there was no escape for tho nicotine. To overcome this defect (he Abguss or “off-pouring” was invented, by which the bowl was made separate from the rest of the china part of the stem, and fitted, by means of a short stalk, into a bulbous receptacle, which could bo emptied as required. The clay and the china pipes had one great defect in common—they were easily broken. The smoker had constantly to break in a new pipe, and transfer his affections from a tried friend to an untried one. Some careless smokers had eoiiipai-alive.lv heavy bills for pipes. An account Iwok of Queen Anne’s reign shows that one English gentleman bought a. thousand pipes in five years—an average of nearly four each week. To overcome the defect of fragility the German pipe makers fitted a wooden mouthpiece into the stem. Next came the meerschaum pipe, which was first introduced into Austria from Turkey, and was soon given a wide popularity by German pipe makers. Meerschaum is a soft, easily-carved material, which conies chielly from Asia Minor, but has also been found in Greece, Morocco, France, Spain, and tho United States. The carving of pipe heads in elaborate relief increased the value of Hie meerschaum, and the fact that it coloured more readily than the softest clay, and took on a fine polish endeared it to the smoker. The nieeisehauni became popular in England iu tho early part of the nineteenth century, and until the’ sixties it reigned supreme. But it was' always expensive, aud chiefly on that account it had to give way to the briar. Meersehauin pipes are procurable to-day, but tho big ela-borately-carved bowls have disappeared. In form, the modern meerschaum approximates to the popular wooden pipe. TLie briar is by far the most popular of wooden pipes, but. Hie cherrywood, the hazclwood, and the American corn

cob have still their devotees. The brm which was called for a long time th. French briar, is made from the hari root of the tree heather (bruyere). ‘The first briar pipes wluicn api>eared in Englund, about the time of the Crimean War, were generally short, and the still extant, though not very popular 'bull dog’ shape was one of tho first,” slates a contributor to the Tobacco Supplement of "The Tinies” of October 20. “The short, curved, and straight shapes, with smooth-rounded bowls, are equally popular in France, England, Italy, Belgium, Holland, and Norway. In Denmark and Sweden the briar pipe has not yet displaced the big German china pipe, hut tho cigar is more popular there than the pipe. Long-stiflnuied briars have never been very popular ill England, though they arc often met with in France and Italy. Horn mouthpieces were common in England until about twenty years ago. but now they have been completely displaced by vulcanite. All sorts of patent pipes have been devised at various times to prevent the backflow of tho nicotine tn the mouth, and enable it to bo got rid of by some more scientific form of Abguss than the mere unscrewing or unplugging of the mouthpiece, for even the best briar cannot be wholly absorbent. “Fashions in briars have altered from time to time. Tho silver band on the irouthpiecc, formerly indispensable on a briar, is loss popular than it was. In France and Italy they have never worried much about the grain and general appearance of their briars, and iu England the pipe smoker is not as partien hir about the grain as he was in the 'nineties, when the respective partisans of the “straight” grain and the “bird's eye” grain were in keen rivalry. There is now a vogue for a knobby or roughened form of briar and a peculiar flattened form of bowl. Cheap wooden pipes of (he cherry, or even hazel, are still smoked, but loss now than formerly. The American corn cob with its cane stem, and tho calabash, still count many devotees, but after all nothing can really compete with a good briar. No pipe ’is so generally satisfactory, whether it is of the simple typo or provided with patent gadgets. The briat reached England in.the ’fifties, and became general in the ’seventies, <iml by the ’nineties it had become sovereign in Britain. France. Belgium, aud Italy, and commm in Holland.”

It is generally supposed that women in Europe did not begin to smoke until recent years, but. ns a matter of fact English women smoked pipes centuries before Hie cigarette was introduced from Turkey after the Crimean AVar. In the seventeenth century the clay pipe was in common use among all ranks of English women. Tobacco was regarded as a disinfectant against Hie plagui.. which repeatedly broke out in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth ccn--turies, rnd culminated in tho great outbreak of IGGS, which claimed GS.O-09 victims out of London's population of 400.000. A French visitor to England in 1G72 found the pipe in constlint use by men and women. The account hooks of Mistress Satah Fell, step-daughter of George Fox. the Quaker, records the. purchase of pipes and tobacco for “Mother.” for “Sister Susannah.” and for ‘Sister Tower.” The daughters of Tonis XIV were eonflrmed smokers, although their father hrted tbbaeco. They wore accustomed to betake themselves to their own part of the palaeo after supper, and seek in the solace of tobacco relief from the Ijoredom of court etiquette. One night their brother, the Dauphin, nearing sounds in their, apartment, -went in and discovered them smoking pipes lent them bv officers of the Swiss Guards. A portrait of Alndnme Vigee le Brun. celebrated French actress, who died in 1842 at the ripe age of 87. shows her with a long clay pipe in .her hand, and tobacco jars and pipes on a table m front of he)