| When Sir Walter Raleigh introduced the smoking of | | | | waistcoat-pocket menagerie. The art of silversmiths, |
| tobacco (in a pipe) to the Elizabethan court in 1585, he | | | | pewterers, iron mongers and glassblowers spanning |
| had no idea what kind of cultural revolution he had | | | | three very creative centuries. |
| started. Up until 1881 the pipe was king, when the | | | | In the tobacco-stopper (UK), the Brit displayed either |
| cigarette machine was first invented. The combination | | | | taste or fancy. It was the only article on which the |
| of a newly discovered stimulant, the tobacco -- and a | | | | English smoker prided himself. It was made of various |
| free enterprise European market, made sure there | | | | materials - wood, bone, ivory, mother-of-pearl, brass, |
| was a pipe in the mouths of every English sailors, | | | | and silver; and the forms which it assured were |
| trader, philosopher, tavern-keeper, army general, and | | | | exceedingly diversified. |
| every citizen within reach. Paintings, caricatures, the | | | | Additional materials included pewter, bronze, iron, lead(!), |
| earliest of novels and the earliest of photographs, | | | | horn, basalt, china, clay, lava and even animal teeth. |
| show us that the pipe was an intrinsic part of their daily | | | | Tampers of various forms were fashioned and used |
| lives, a hand-held pleasure, an adult (and sometimes | | | | by nearly every ethnic group in every continent. |
| juvenile) toy. True, the famous generals Grant and | | | | Diversity, it seems, is nothing new. The tamper in a pipe |
| Sherman smoked cigars. But look closely at photos of | | | | smoker’s hand was a conversational piece. It had |
| their soldiers: what you’ll spot, again and again, are | | | | its own value close to the lives of everyday people. |
| their pipes. | | | | By the late 1800’s, mass production replaced the |
| Those tobacco leaves burning so sweetly in a | | | | “craft” in most areas of life. Pipe smoking, the |
| person’s pipe demanded care (see our article | | | | activity of a slower time, gave way to the faster, |
| about caring for your pipe). To achieve a smooth and | | | | disposable cigarette. And tampers? They went the |
| even draw of smoke, you need to push, or | | | | way of crafts people: from the workshop to the |
| “tamp”, the “backy” down. Sir Isaac | | | | factory. Nearly all of today’s mass-produced |
| Newton once used a lady’s finger (still attached to | | | | tampers, made of acrylic, wood, steel, or brass, are |
| its owner, it seems) to “tamp” his pipe, with fiery | | | | functional. Some are still crafted by hand by the pipe |
| results. There just had to be a better way. | | | | carvers. They are mostly wood and mostly briar. Most |
| Japan had its purse-string netsukes ( miniature sculpted | | | | of the modern tampers are utilitarian, not fantasy. |
| figurines that would hang from their purse strings), | | | | There are a hand full of smiths out there that will have |
| Native America its medicine pouches; Europe came up | | | | a few made out of silver, pewter or brass, reproducing |
| with figural pipe tampers. Like the netsukes and | | | | the antique tampers found at the Smithsonian, Louvre |
| medicine pouches, “stoppers” in British English - | | | | or Royal Museum. |
| were small, portable, useful, and wonderfully decorative. | | | | But today, in the 21st century, pipe smoking has |
| Within these little finger long sculptures, every aspect | | | | returned at a very fast pace. Therefore all their |
| of contemporary life was depicted, glorified and | | | | accessories are in demand as are the pipes and their |
| satirized: terriers and grinning imps, two-faced popes | | | | tobaccos. |
| and Cheshire cats, Bonaparte and the weeping Eve. a | | | | |