It is many a long year since I smoked a pipe. In fact, looking in my smoking cabinet, I still have seven old pipes: a Barling meerschaum; two Petersons ,one with a sterling silver collar made in the Republic of Ireland; an Italian called Lorenzo; two nondescripts and my favourite, a straight grain briar Comoy London pipe. Comoy has long since been bought out and I doubt whether the quality will be the same. They were very expensive and mine is nearly forty years old and was, of course, a gift from my uncle at Bentons. It should be noted that the briar pipe made from the carved root is really quite a recent development. The first common tobacco pipes were made of white china clay. ( rather gritty on the teeth). Many hand made pipes particularly the Meerschaums are works of art shaped into pirates heads and suchlike. Meerschaum is a soft chalky material and is easily carved. It is mined extensively in Turkey.
Pipe tobaccos come in a variety of forms. Plug and twist are, as their names suggest, thick twistwith leaves spun into a roll or a dark black pigtail of thin twist, and the plug a small block. The tobacco was shaved off with one's penknife and rubbed into shreds in the palm of the hand. Plug is not generally available now as it usually sold in a sliced flake form. Twist is available in thick and pigtail form from very specialised retailers and is often soaked in peach juice or rum for additional flavour. Twists can be rolled into a rope form and cut into coin shaped rounds as Copes Escudo and in a smaller form the small oval coins of Three Nuns. None yesterday, none today and none tomorrow being an in joke of yesteryear. Escudo was a lighter mixture of Virginia and Louisiana Perique leaf the darker Perique in the centre of the coin.
The plug and thick twist varieties were dark and strong, though I am told quite cool to smoke. I knew a fellow who smoked Ogdens Walnut plug and inhaled deeply from the moment it was lit. He must be well into his seventies now if he survived the pickled lung. Old Ned Coakley smoked his Irish Yachtsman plug in a pipe with a silver hat on it which intrigued me as a child.
Most brands are now sold ready rubbed whether flake or slice. Another large chap of mature years smoked Gallaghers Rich Dark Honeydew in a huge pipe with the shreds of tobacco spilling from the bowl. Another smoked light Four Square Green in a calabash. I preferred my Escudo even though it was more expensive, a cut above the rest. Another brand which was unusual was Edgeworth an American sliced tobacco which had the addition of a little molasses, giving a sweeter taste. This was smoked by a gourmet acquaintance of mine who at this time is alive and living in Staffordshire.
One of the most interesting characters was an older chap who smoked Condor, a heavy smoke. He was worldly wise and regaled us younger folk with tales of his National Service on the sun splashed deck of a patrol boat, in Akrotiri or Limassol as a member of the Fleet Air Arm. He also shared his interesting moments with the faster Cypriot ladies. I seem to remember an advertisement concerning a smiling, contented gent having just lit his pipe, the tag line being; "That Condor moment! Our friend in the Fleet Air Arm, if he is to believed, had many such moments.
Big tobacconists like Bentons tended to blend their own mixtures. In fact I remember going downstairs to a huge pile of tobacco which had been dampened in transit and was hugely mildewed and useless. These mixtures are usually in shag form being quite finely shredded and come in forms from dark to very light. The term shag refers to finely shredded varieties. The shredding is finer than ready rubbed and a lighter smoke. A very fine dark tobacco almost in shag form is Dunhills Royal Yacht, with a burnt chocolate taste and aroma and quite pricey in its red and yellow tin.
There many brands, too numerous to mention here but they all appeared in seried rows on Benton's shelves. Balkan Sobranie with Russian Latakia leaf and a specialised Sobranie cigar leaf are also very distinctive in their white and gold flat tins. However most tobacco nowadays is served in pouches of the ready rubbed variety. I suppose flake and sliced are still available in their distinctive tins. I just have not seen a specialised tobacconist for ages. I think are a dying breed.
The next step up are the cigars and cigarettes and they will be dealt with in another post. The cigar humidor which Bentons stocked was also a work of art. In the meantime this lot can go up in smoke and drift across the ether.
JL March 24 11:32
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