THE PIPE.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 January 1926, Page 3

THE PIPE.

ITS LONG HXSTOKV

The clay pipe, which has been dethroned by the briar, liad a long reign, says a writer in the Melbourne ‘ Age. English explorers in the sixteenth century found clay pipes in use by tho Red Indians in Virginia, and they brought samples back with them to verve as models for tho manufacture of pipes in England. The manufacture of' day pipes was an organised craft m London early in the seventeenth century, and in 1619 the guild of tobacco pipe makers was incorporated in the reign of James 1., but it is claimed that clay pipes were manufactured at Broselev, in Shropshire, as early as 1575. James I tried to suppress smoking by increasing the duty on tobacco from 2d to Gs JOd I>cr lb., hut the effect of making tobacco dearer was io increase the affection of the smoker for ti K . weed. The growth of smoking is indicated hv the fact that the rnanu. faoture 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, Imt elsewhere the clay in use to-day is modelled oil its successor—the briar. The short-stemmed, plain-howled elav is smoked in country districts in Great Britain; in Scotland it is called tho “cutty,” and in Ireland the “Dhudeen.” But there are now only two firms in Great Britain engaged in making clay pipes; one or these is in London ami the other in Glasgow. But when the elav 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.

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 of Holland. The disadvantage of these glazed china pipes was that they were not absorbent, and therefore there was no escape for tlie nicotine. To overcome this defect, the Abgtiss or “off-pouring” was invented, hv which the howl was made separate from the rest of the china, and fitted, h.v means of a short, stalk, into n bullions receptacle, which could he emptied as required. The cloy and me, china pipes had one great defect in common they wore easily broken. Tho smoker had constantly to break in a new pipe, and transfer his alfeetions from a tried friend to an untried one. Some careless smokers had comparatively heavy hills for pipes. An account book of Queen Anne’s reign shows that ono Englishman bought a thousand pipes in fire years—an average of nearly lour a 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 iioniilanTy by German pipe-mak-ers. .Meerschaum is a soft, easily-car-ved material, which comes chiefly from Asia Minor, hut has also boon found in Greece. Morocco, France. Spain and United States. The carving of pipe heads in elaborate relief increased tho value of the meerschaum, and the fact that it coloured more readily than the softest clay, and took oil a fine polish, endeared it to the smoker. Tho meerschaum became popular in England in the early part of the liiiiteenth century, and until the sixlics 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 hare disappeared. To form, the modern meerschaum approximates to the popular wooden pipe. The briar is by far the most popular of wooden pipes, hut the eherrywood, the Hazelwood and the American corn cob have still their devotees. Thibrinr. which was called for a long time the French lunar, is made from the j hard root of the tree heather (bruyere). “ The first briar pipes which appeared in England, about the time of the Crimean Wnr, wore generally short, and the still extant, though not very popular. ‘ hull log ’ 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 howls, 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 the cigar is more popular there than the pipe. Long-stemmed 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 vulcanite. All sorts of patent pipes have been devised at various times to prevent the backflow of the nicotine to the mouth, and enable it to lie got rid of by some more scientific form of Ahguss than the mere unscrewing or unplugging of the mouthpiece, for even the best briar cannot he 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 France 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 briar, and a peculiar flattened form of howl. Cheap wooden pines of the cherry, or even hazel, arc still smoked, but less now

tlmt! formerly. The American corn cob with its cane stem, and the calabash, still count many devotees, hut after all nothing can really compete with a good briar. No pipe is so generally satisfactory, whether it is of the simple type or provided with patent gadgets. The briar reached England Til the fifties, and became general in the seventies, and by the nineties it had beeome sovereign in Britain, France. Belgium and Italy, and common in Holland.” It is generally supposed that women j

iii Europe did not begin to smoke until recent years, but as a matter of fact English women smoked pipes centuries before the cigarette was introduced from Turkey after the Crimean war. In the sevententh century the clay pipe was in common use among all ranks of English women. Tobacco was regarded as a disinfectant against the plague, which repeatedly broke out in England in the sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, and culminated in the great outbreak of 1665, which claimed 63,000 victims out of London’s population of 400.000. A French visitor to England in 1672 found the pipe in constant use by men and women. The account books of Mistress Sarah Fell, step-daughter of George Fox. the Quaker, records tlm purchase of pipes and tobacco for “Mother.” for “Sister Susannah ” and for “Sister T-ower.” The daughters of Louis XIV. were confirmed smokers, although their father hated tobacco. They were accustomed [ tp Intake thcnisflves to their own part

of the palace after supper, aud seek in tho solace of tobacco, relief from, the* boredom of court etiquette. One night, their brother, the Dauphin, hearing sounds in their apartment, went in and discovered them smoking pipes lent them by officers of the Swiss guards. A portrait of Madame Vigeo le Brun, a. celebrated French actress, who died in 1842 at the ripe age of eighty-seven, shows her with a long clay pipe in her hand, and tobacco jars and pipes on a table in front of her.