Vintage ad (date unknown): Smoking jacket

click to enlarge

Buy a jacket, get a free pipe!

Thanks to Bill Crider's Pop Culture Blog.

Ghostly Gourds by Normal Rockwell

Pipe smoker: Nick Merfelder

click to enlarge

Nick Merfelder petting his dog in Fort Davis in 1896. Mr. Merfelder was born in Bavaria, immigrated to the United States as a young man, and eventually ended up in Fort Davis, Texas. He was the post's musician, barber, photographer, and justice of the peace.

Thanks to Traces of Texas (Facebook link).

Decisions...

From Miskatonic U.

A picturesque but unnamed pipe smoker

A man of the Svan people with traditional dagger and long pipe in the village of Mestia in the mountains of Georgia, Russian Empire, circa 1888-1900.

via My Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck By Lightning

Pipe, not pipe...wait a minute--pipe!

The Chokwe peoples occupy the broad expanse of open savanna in present-day Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Chokwe chiefs became increasingly involved in trade with Europeans who sought rubber, wax, and ivory as well as African slaves for their colonies in the New World. Slaves were often exchanged for firearms, and these were employed in raids on neighboring peoples that produced more captives to sell to European traders. Local leaders who prospered from this exchange frequently commissioned prestige items from local artisans to indicate their wealth and power. This tobacco pipe is one such item that demonstrates the degree to which warfare, the slave trade, and elite arts were intertwined at this time. The pipe itself was the prerogative of individuals who could afford expensive imported tobacco, generally by trading slaves, while the rifle refers to the means by which such slaves were acquired.

 From the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.  Click to read full article.

The pretentious pipe

From jimbenton.com.

Many years ago I mentioned to someone that I preferred bent pipes to straight, and was told that bents are too pretentious for a young man.  "Well, I guess I'm pretentious, then" was my answer.  Now I guess I'm too old for that to be an issue, anyway.

Lost Sherlock Holmes film found

Readers of this blog know that I have previously written about both William Gillette and Sherlock Holmes on more than one occasion, so I think this news is worthy of reporting although it has nothing to do with pipes.

Long Lost William Gillette Sherlock Holmes Film Found

There is one Sherlock Holmes film that legendary in its heritage: the 1916 Sherlock Holmes starring none other than William Gillette (1853 - 1937). This film is significant because it has long been lost.

Gillette asked for and received permission from Arthur Conan Doyle to adapt material and use the character for a play in 1899. And from that time until the early 1930s, he played the role some 1,300 times. And yet the 1916 film is the only record that was made of Gillette's performance in the title role that dominated so much of his career.

Today the Cinémathèque Française announced that the original negative of the film has been located!

Click the link to read the whole story.

English and Scotch Soldiers

click to enlarge

English and Scotch Soldiers/Soldats Anglais et Escosais.
Private Men of the 95th Rifles, 71st Highlanders, and a corporal of the 42nd Highlanders, c. 1815. Artist Unknown.

via the Ear-Trumpet

That thou still believe

From Pop Sonnets.

Bottled History

Bottled History from Smith Journal on Vimeo.

A short film about pipe-smoking ship-in-a-bottle artist Ray Gascoigne.

Shot pipe

click to enlarge

From The Hole Book (Peter Newell, 1908) at The Public Domain Review.

Pipe smokers not welcome

 Sign outside Zion, Illinois, ca. 1915.

via In Medias Res

Willis Carrier invented air conditioning and possibly smoked a pipe

click to enlarge

On the anniversary of air conditioning at OUPblog.

Pipe-smoking sculpture

all photos click to enlarge

Some photos of a sculpture of a pipe-smoking man playing fetch with his dogs.  At an animal hospital in Broomfield, Colorado.  Sent to me by a reader.  Thanks, Ken!

30 Jean-Paul Sartre Quotes For Your Next Existential Crisis

30 Jean-Paul Sartre Quotes For Your Next Existential Crisis

From Russia Beyond the Headlines

Planet’s strongest shamans gather in Tuva for landmark festival.

Might not be pipe related, but it has a cool photo at the top.

Just a few tobacco comments

I haven't updated my online tobacco cellar in quite some time, but it's still there to give anyone who cares an idea of what I like to smoke.  I recently made a purchase for the first time since Cornell & Diehl was sold.  So I ordered from smokingpipes.com.  Am I wrong, or is their bulk tobacco much less expensive than when C&D was selling it themselves?

Anyway, they were out of my standard Bayou Night at the time, so I ordered some Byzantium.  Their description:

An intriguing interpretation of the classic Balkan.  Redolent of Latakia, Orientals and bracing Perique.

Since I so thoroughly enjoyed a tin of Samuel Gawith's Balkan Flake recently, I decided I'd try this instead of waiting until Bayou Night came back in stock.  Now almost finished with my first pipe of it, and the word is:  it's good.  I like it.  If I had some straight Perique on hand, I'd probably give it a dose to increase the Perique content, but I am enjoying it as it is.

Since I depleted my entire stash of tins that I'd had in the cabinet for a few years, I also ordered one tin each of the aforementioned Balkan Flake, 1792 Flake and Escudo.

I'm pretty sure the last time I ordered from C&D, their bulk tobacco was running around $40 per pound, but this pound of Byzantium was only $25 from smokingpipes.com.  So I'll probably be ordering some additional tobacco soon:  Bayou Night for sure, and possibly a tin of Three Nuns now that it's available, and maybe a tin or two of Nightcap.

I also got a small free sample of C&D's Briar Fox, which I haven't tried yet.  I'll post some thoughts on it when I get around to trying it.

I guess I should also add that, while waiting for this shipment to come in, I finished off the last of my St. James Woods.  This is the only Perique blend I've had that I didn't really care for.  I don't think I'll ever be ordering it again.

"Mr. West and his fine mustache"

Mr West, and his fine moustache, on a duck shooting trip in Sindh, India. From a British holiday album, 1906, with more here: bit.ly/U5btiM

via

Manly smells

15 manly smells from The Art of Manliness.

I'm not certain the person writing the article is really that familiar with pipe smoking.  I've never heard of pipe tobacco that includes cloves, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to smoke such a thing.  Also, the smell of "cherry wood?"  Probably just meant cherry-flavored tobacco, which I do not care for.  Still, nice article.

Personally, I think I would replace Old Spice with English Leather.  As for gun cleaning solvent, there are so many...but my favorite is Ballistol.  One whiff of that and you'll know you're cleaning a manly firearm (ha ha).  Also I think an even better smell than a hardware store is the smell of a feed store.  Also I think WD-40 would not be out of place on this list.

My dad always wore (and still wears) plain old Aqua Velva after shave.  The smell of it always reminds me of him, although I prefer the Aqua Velva "musk" scent (the brown kind) to the original (the blue kind), myself.