True, a cigar humidor can be attractive as well, but the variety of pipe shapes, sizes, and materials is far vaster than the variety of humidor styles. Plus,a pipe is easier to stop smoking and relight than a cigar, without the occasionally unpleasant alteration in flavor that results when a cigar is relit. But consider that while smoking them, one does not have to look around for an ashtray or other place to flick the ashes. An occassional tamping is sufficient to keep the ashes in their place until a suitable receptacle can be found. Further, if a person is smoking a pipe and enters a location where smoking is not permitted, placing the pipe in a coat pocket will solve the problem.
Pipes are thus much safer than cigarette smoking.
The Surgeon General's report on smoking in 1964 found that pipe smokers who inhale lived about as long as non-smokers,and much longer than cigarette smokers.