Chats on Household Curios Part 13

CHAPTER XII

THE SMOKER'S CABINET

Old pipes--Pipe racks--Tobacco boxes--Smokers' tongs and stoppers--Snuff boxes and rasps.

The slave of the pipe and the moderate smoker of years gone by have left behind them relics in nearly every home. Such curios are found when pulling down old houses, and clearing out rubbish heaps; and even when making excavations in the vicinity of once occupied ground remains left behind by smokers of olden times are discovered.

Many are marked as curios on account of their curious forms; others have been regarded as such because their uses have become obsolete, and some because of their great beauty and the costliness of the materials of which they are made.

The collectable curios of the smoker's cabinet consist of clay pipes, varying from the earliest form known to the later types not far removed from the modern clays still smoked by workmen; of pipes of curious forms and quaintly carved bowls; and the Eastern pipes, which look more like show pieces in their size and forms than any pipe made for actual use.

The curios include tobacco jars, spill cups, and ash trays; and there are also bra.s.s and copper spittoons and pipe racks. An old smoker's desk often contains odd curios, such as the one-time common pipe-stoppers, so many of which were made by Birmingham "toy-makers" in the eighteenth century.

Old Pipes.

When tobacco was first introduced into this country, and smoking was taught to those whose descendants in countless numbers were destined to worship at the shrine of my Lady Nicotine on British soil, the pipe was brought over too; for tobacco and the tobacco pipe are inseparable, although the pipe shares its popularity with cigars and cigarettes.

There are few records of early experiments in the modelling and baking of local clays by pipe makers; it was, however, soon discovered that Broseley clay was most suitable for the tobacco pipe, and there are pipes known to have been made at Broseley in the seventeenth century.

The flat heels of the early pipes were useful in that pipes could then be laid down on the table. Then in the reign of James II an advance was made by the spur-like projection of the bowl, which was found to be convenient for the purpose of branding with the initials of the maker or his trade mark, and there are many examples of old marks, some of which are very curious, a not uncommon form being a punning rebus on the maker's name; thus we have a gauntlet, used by a man named Gauntlet.

The earlier forms of clay pipes gradually gave way to the long-stemmed "churchwardens," which in course of time were again superseded by pipes with short stems. The meerschaum in its day had many followers, and some of the curiosities of the smoker's cabinet (the term "cabinet" is used here in a figurative rather than a realistic sense) are those elaborately carved specimens of meerschaum, that remarkably light material that lends itself so well to the carver's art.

Pipe Racks.

There appear to have been two distinct forms of racks--those used for cleaning or rebaking clay pipes, and the racks on which they were stored. The pipe rack was originally a wrought-iron frame upon which dirty clay pipes were stoved in a brick oven and restored to their original freshness. The stoving of pipes was a common practice not only in taverns and public clubs but in private houses in the days when long clay pipes were served to the guests, and a bowl of punch was placed before them--it was thus that convivial spirits enjoyed themselves in time gone by.

Now and then these old pipe racks are met with in some outhouse or attic, but they are getting very scarce, for most of them appear to have found their way into the sc.r.a.p heap of the old-metal dealer. Some of the racks intended for the storage of pipes and not for baking them were exceedingly decorative, the ornamental sides terminating with acorn k.n.o.bs made of cast lead.

Tobacco Boxes.

It seems natural to suppose that the need of a suitable receptacle for tobacco would early be felt. Many of the old tobacco boxes--those for storage purposes--were made of lead or pewter. Lead was found to be cool and was also used as an appropriate lining for boxes made of other materials. Jars soon came into vogue, and there are quite ancient specimens, especially the old j.a.panned boxes, ornamented with figures in gilt.

There is, of course, a vast difference between the storage jar and the smaller box carried about by the smoker much in the same way as the pouch is now used. Many still prefer metal to other materials, and it is no uncommon thing to see bra.s.s and steel boxes in use in industrial districts. Few, however, excepting modern replicas of the antique, are decorated in the way the old Dutch tobacco boxes of bra.s.s were in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is not very clear why so many of them were engraved with scriptural subjects, for there does not appear to be much connection between biblical history and the pipe!

Engravings of scenes depicting Noah and the Flood are common, the incongruity of the clothing shown being often commented upon; one writer upon the subject referred to the engravings on one of these tobacco boxes as being ornamented with Jewish characters wearing knee breeches of English type, talking to Dutch frauen. Historical portraits are not uncommonly met with on these quaint boxes, and quite a number of battle scenes have been engraved. Such metal work has been gathered together in several museums, and in the British Museum there is a fine collection of various shapes, some oval, others long and narrow, and some almost square. The bra.s.s tobacco box ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 83 has a medallion portrait of Frederick the Great in the centre, such embossed subjects being very popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, both in England and in Holland, although Dutch artists gave preference to scriptural subjects, many fine examples of which are to be seen in our museums. Fortunately there are many really curious specimens obtainable at a moderate cost.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 82.--THREE CURIOUS PIPE-STOPPERS.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 83.--BRa.s.s TOBACCO BOX.

(_In the British Museum._)]

Smokers' Tongs and Stoppers.

Curious little ember tongs were formerly used by smokers for taking up hot embers or ashes with which to light their pipes. Of these there are several varieties, most of them of polished steel, cut and chased. In the eighteenth century similar tongs were used for holding cigars; some were fitted with small knives, and a few of the earlier examples included tinder boxes. Not infrequently one end of the handle terminated in a tobacco stopper.

Stoppers, were, however, destined soon to become an independent and important smokers' accessory. They were made of different materials, including bra.s.s, steel, bone, and ivory, to some being added a pick for clearing out the bowl of a pipe. Many curious handles were modelled, among the varieties being some representing soldiers in armour of the time of James I. There is one favourite type representing Charles I, crowned, and wearing the collar of the Garter, and another a bust of Oliver Cromwell. In one example a farm labourer works a flail, in another a milkmaid goes a-milking with her pail. There are many varieties of a hand holding a pipe, of jockeys and prize-fighters, and of St. George and the Dragon.

The three stoppers ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 82 are quite exceptional specimens, ill.u.s.trating, however, the kind of stopper which collectors should keep a keen look out for. These examples are in the British Museum along with a few others of seventeenth and eighteenth-century manufacture, having striking characteristics. One is described as having a human figure at the b.u.t.t, and at the other end a crowned head. The third example is an historic souvenir, having been made, as the inscription on the stopper indicates, from the royal oak which sheltered Charles II, by Mr. George Plaxton, at one time "parson of the parish."

In the Taunton Castle Museum there is an exceptionally beautiful stopper made of ivory inscribed:--

"NOW . MAN . WITH . MAN . IS . SO . VNJVST .

THAT . ONE . CAN . SCARCE . TELL . WHO . TO . TRVST."

There are similar stoppers in private collections. The inscription on one at South Petherton reads:--

"THE . FAYREST . MAYD . THAT . DID . BAYR . LIFE .

FOR . LOVE . TO . MAN . BECAME . A . WIFE."

Snuff Boxes and Rasps.

Snuff-taking has been a habit a.s.sociated with smoking tobacco from quite early days. The preparation of snuff was formerly achieved at home, and consequently there sprang up the need of rasps, which were frequently carried about in the pocket, many of the cases being very ornamental.

They varied in size, but the rasp cases usually held a plug or twist of tobacco from which the snuff was made.

There are several fine old snuff rasps in the Victoria and Albert Museum, one large rasp measuring 15 in. in length; its case, which is of walnut and extremely decorative, is attributed to a Dutch carver who executed it in the second half of the seventeenth century. There is also a small iron rasp in a case of teak wood, which is inlaid with rosewood, ivory, and tortoisesh.e.l.l, the rasp measuring about 8 in. in length. An eighteenth-century French rasp of boxwood is carved in low relief; on one side a pair of doves is represented, under the picture being the legend, "_Unis jusqu'a la mort_." On the other side there is a man blowing a horn with the legend, "_La fidelite est perdue_," around which is a rope-like frame supporting two cornucopiae. Another curious variety of snuff rasp is made to run on wheels. When snuff-making became an established trade, and the need for snuff rasps to be carried was not so great, the decoration of snuff boxes became more ornate.

It was in the days of Queen Anne that the height of the glory of the snuffer was reached; it was, however, during the reigns of the Georges that so many beautiful boxes were made. There were boxes carved out of a piece of wood, others of bone, papier-mache, and metal; indeed, all the metals seem to have been used, for among the curiosities of old snuff boxes are those made of iron, copper, bra.s.s, silver, and gold.

Some of the more costly were enriched with diamonds and precious stones, and with tiny miniature paintings and beautiful Wedgwood cameos.

In the days when snuff-taking was a commoner practice than it is now, the ornamental snuff box was the chosen gift to men of fame. Kings, princes, and the n.o.bility received gold and jewelled snuff boxes on occasions when in more modern days they would have been given a scroll of vellum in a golden casket.

Many provincial museums contain excellent collections of smokers'

requisites. In the handbook of Welsh antiquities published in connection with the National Museum of Wales, in Cardiff, there are allusions to several interesting specimens, the writer of the guide quoting some lines penned by a sixteenth-century poet, who extolled tobacco thus:--

"Tobacco engages Both s.e.xes, all ages-- The poor as well as the wealthy; From the Court to the cottage, From childhood to dotage, Both those that are sick and the healthy."

XIII

LOVE TOKENS AND LUCKY EMBLEMS

CHAPTER XIII

LOVE TOKENS AND LUCKY EMBLEMS

Amulets--Horse trappings--Emblems of luck--Lovespoons--Gla.s.s curios.