A Collection of Pipes

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 25, 16 August 1892, Page 4

A Collection of Pipes

We hare had the pleasure of inspeot* ing a most curious collecting of clay tobacco pipe.'! in the possession of Mr Walter L\Ddon, of the firm of Messrs £. and W. Lyndon. The collection is the most unique to be found in the j colonies, and it is doubtful whether it could be matched in England. The pipes date back to the time when King James I. published his famous " Conter ! blaste to Tobacco," and when, to suppress smoKing, he raised the duty on the weed from 2d to 6s 10d per lb. As everyone knows, tobacco was introduced into | England by Sir Walter Raleigh in ISB6. and it was used as a snuff for some time before it was smoked. Its use was pro* hibited in many parts of Europe; phy sicians declared it hurtful, and priests denounced it as sinful. The sultan Amarath made smoking a capital offence ; whilst in Russia the penalty for mdulg* ing in a pipe was to have the nose of the offender cut off. When King James raised the price of tobacco by his exorbitant import duty— for 6s lOd repre« sented in that day a sum greatly in excess of what it does now — only wealthy people could solace themselves with a smoke. Consequently the enrly pipes were very small. In Mr Lyndon's collection there are five of King Jame's period, having bowls scarcely capable of holding a moJ era cigarette ; the bowls are plainly but excellently fashioned, having been turned in a lathe. The stems look out of pro* portion to the diminutive size of the bowl, but they are aa hard as iron. In shape these pipes are exactly that which may be seen in the pictures by the old Dutch masters. In spite of all efforts to put a stop to the " hurtful and disgusting use of tobacco," the practice of smoking because increasingly popular, and with the demand for the weed, and, probably, from more frequent communU cation with the American colonies, tobacco became cheaper. At all events, the pipes were made larger, till they gradually attained the size of those of the present time. In Mr Lyndon's collection these gradations are easily traced, and if we only knew it the price of tobacco might be calculated by the size of a bowl. Mr Lyndon got his collection together from various parts of England, and, as may be supposed, in the course of many years. He made a grand find during some excavations for the foundations of a large building in Tottenham Court road, London, when the site of some ancient pottery works was unearthed. Railway cuttings were also fruitful in supplying old specimens .of pipe, and Mr Lyndon hating had a good deal to do with nayvies, these men were glad to give him any old " broken rubbish" they came across. A pipe of a still later date, of which the collection contains a variety, is the carved clay, made in Paris, and some of these are very valuable. They are beautifully carved by hand, and they represent vnri* ous types of the human hand. In the whole collection there are no two pipes alike, the most of them show evidence of having been smoked for a long time, and many of them have still the dirt adhering to them as they were dug out of the earth. — Napier Telegraph,