THE PIPE

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2340, 9 January 1926, Page 14

THE PIPE

ITS LONG HISTORY. j CLAYS, MEERSCHAUMS AND BRIARS. The clay pips, which has been dethroned by the briar, had a long: reign, says a writer in the Melbourne "Age.” English explorers in the sixteenth century found clay pipes in use by the Red Indians in Virginia, and they brought samples back with them to serve as models for the manufacture of pipes in England. The manufacture of clay pipes was an organised craft in London early in the seventeenth century, and in 1619 the guild of tobaccopipe makers was incorporated in the reign of James 1., but it is claimed that clay pipes were manufactured at Broseley, in Shropshire, as early as 1578. James I. tried to suppress smoking by increasing the duty on tobacco from 2d to 2/10 per lb., but the effect of making tobacco dearer was to increase the affection of the smoker for the weed. The growth of smoking is indicated by the fact that the manufacture of clay pipes became a flourishing trade in the seventeenth century in Shropshire,. Staffordshire. Bristol, Hull, Winchester and Nottingham. The original models underwent : considerable , development, the most notable feature being the long curved stem, which was subsequently carried to extreme in the “churchwarden” type. The long-stemmed clay is still procurable in England and Holland, but elsewhere the clay in use to-day Is modelled on its successor—the briar. The short-stemmed, plain-bowled clay Is smoked in country districts in Great Britain: in Scotland it is called ( the '‘cutty,” and in Ireland the “Dhudeen.” But there are now only two Arms 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 200

years, closed down. China Rivals the Olay. The china pipe was the first rival of the clay. It originated in Germany as a successor of the painted clay and Delft glazed pottery pipes ot Holland. The disadvantage of these glazed china pipes was that they were not absorbent, and therefore there was no escape for the nicotine. To overcome this defect, the Abguss or “oft-pour-ing” was Invented, by which the bowl was made separate from the rest of the china, and fitted, by means of a short stalk, into a bulbous receptacle, which could be emptied as required.

The elay end the china pipes had one great defect ,ln common— they ■were easily broken. The smoker had constantly to brbak In a new pipe, and transfer his affections from a tried friend to an untried one. Some careless smokers had comparatively heavy bills for pipes. An account book 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 the Meerschaum. Next came the meerschaum pipe, which was first Introduced into Austria from Turkey, and was soon given a wide popularity by German pipemakers. Meerschaum is a soft, easilycarved material, which comes chiefly from Asia Minor, but has also been found in Greece, Morocco, France, Spain and the United States. The carving of pipe heads in elaborate relief increased the value of the 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 meerschaum became popular in England in the early part of the nineteenth century and until the sixties it reigned supreme. But it was always expensive, and chiefly on that account It had to give way to the briar. Meerschaum pipes are procurable to-day,, but the big, elaborately carved bowls have disappeared. In form, the modem meerschaum approximates to th e popular wooden pipe. The Popular Briar. The briar is by far the most popular of wooden pipes, but the cherrywood, the hazelwood and the American corn cob have stilt their devotees. The biar, which was called for a long time the French briar, is made from the hard root of the tree heather (bruyere). “The first briar pipes which appeared in England, about the time of the Crimean War, were generally short, and the still extant, though not very popular, ‘bull dog’ shape was one of the first,’ states a contributor to the Tobacco Supplement of “The Times"' 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, but the cigar is more popular there than the pipe. Longstemmed briars have never been very popular in England, though they are 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 the vulcanite. All sorts of patent pipes have been devised atj various times to prevent the backflow ! of the nicotine to the mouth, and enable it to be got rid of by some more scientific form of Abguss than the mere unscrewing or unplugging of the mouthpiece, for even the best bnar cannot be wholly absorbent. “Fashions in briars have altered from time to time. The silver band on the mouthpiece, formerly indispensable on a briar, is less popular than it was. In Prance and Italy they have never worried much about the grain and general appearance of their briars, and in England the pipe smoker is not as particular 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 i briar, and a peculiar flattened form

of bowl. Cheap wooden pipes of the |cherry, or even hazel, are still smoked, ibut less now than formerly. The (American corn cob with its cane stem, And the 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 j imar reached England in th e fifties, ■ and became general in the seventies, i and by the nineties it had become j sovereign in Britain, France, Belgium, and Italy, and common in Holland.” Women as Smokers. It is generally supposed that women in Europe did not begin to smoke until I recent years, but as a matter of fact English women smoked pipes cen-.j turies before the cigarette was Intro- i duced from Turkey after the Crimean 1 i war. In the seventeenth century the j i clay pipe was In common use among all ranks of English women. Tobacco was regarded as a disinfectant against • the plague, which repeatedly broke i 'out In England in, the sixteenth and ' seventeenth centuries, and culminated ; In the great outbreak of 1665, which i claimed 68,000 victims out of London’s population of 400,000. A. French , visitor to England in 1672 found the pipe in constant Vise by men and : women. The account books of Mia- I ; tress Sarah Fell, step-daughter of George Fox, the Quaker, records the | purchase of pipes and tobacco for "Mothor,” for “Sister Susannah” and for "Sister Lower.” The daughters of 'Louis XIV., were confirmed smokers, ■ although their father hated tobacco. , (They were accustomed to betake • themselves to their own part of the : palace after supper, and seek In the i solace ot tobacco relief from the bore- . ; dom of court etiquette. One night their “brother, the Dauphin, hearing sounds in their apartment, went in and o.lsi covered them smoking pipes lent them jby officers of the Swiss guards. A ! portrait of Madame Vigee 1c Brun, a celebrated French actress, who died in i 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 In front of her.