Smoking Pipes

“ ….the moment a man takes to a pipe he becomes a philosopher. It’s the poor man’s friend; it calms the mind, sooths the temper, and makes a man patient under difficulties.”
Thomas Chandler Haliburton 1836

Welcome to this hobby area of my web site. I bought my first pipe 53 years ago when I was commisioned as a Midshipman in the Navy. I was fitted for my uniform by Messers Gieves in Portsmouth and considered that a pipe would set it off! I fell in love with a Sandblasted Dunhill Prince in their showcase and this cost me £8 if I remember correctly. My pay was 13 old shillings a day, so it was a major purchase! My father smoked Three Nuns, so I purchased a tin to get me going. This started my love affair with Dunhills and over the years many more were purchased together with several Charatans and Comoys.

With the advent of eBay I discovered the fun of buying estate pipes and was fortunate to buy several from Tony Soderman (Mr Can). We got chatting by email and he told me that I had to get to the Chicago Tobacciano Fair. In 2003 I made my first visit and it opened up a new world of pipe smoking friends. I value these friendships immensely and have returned every year since then.

In these pages I will be illustrating some of the pipes in my collection and also publishing the research that I have carried out into the history and dating of Comoys.

It is a great shame that the anti smoking lobby spread its net over all forms of smoking, because there is no evidence that pipe smoking has ever harmed anyone. The smoke is seldom inhaled by the pipe smoker and most people I know enjoy the smell, unlike second hand cigarette smoke. I am personally convinced that the highly carcogenic fumes we all inhale every day from diesel buses, lorries, taxis and now every day cars cause far more damage than second hand smoke.

Faced with the "Nanny State" that grows stronger daily in its control of individual liberty, I find that I become more of a "Grumpy Old Man" and need my pipe to calm me!

I end this introduction with another quotation. Simeon Howard like George Orwell forsaw it all.

  "An incautious people may submit to these demands, one after another, till its liberty is irrecoverably gone, before they saw the danger." Simeon Howard, Boston 1773.

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