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