The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-11-25
PIPE COLLECTING.
SOME OF THE GREAT sIEERsCHAusl
COLLECTIONS III NEW YORK.
Pipes THAT Are WORTH Thousands Of
noilars--Pipes That Have Had Re-
marsSabIe Histories.
BY W. P. POND.
Icopyrighted. 1924, by S. S. Mcclure Linn
ited.l

ICopyr1ghted, 1894, by S. S. Mcclure Linn
ited,l
New York. Nov. q, 1884,
OF all the people the antiquarian or col
lector is the most interesting when you
set down to his inner consciousness, but
it is not everyone who is so privil eyed.
1t matters not what he may collect, be it
.stamps, snuff bottles, sword guards, china.
& evolutionary relics. or even pipes. ne has
always such a wealth Of detail connected
with his hobby at the tip of his tongue
that even those who are rot personally of
the cult OF tie collector, feel themselves
interested also, almost against their viii.
Since Sir Walter Raleigh or dear old
Salvation Yeo, who knows which, intro
dGced the Divine Weed as it is aptly
called, into Europe, there has spread all
over the world a desire to beavtify the
pipe, and to own a fine specimen. The
Turk has his pipe sticks, specially
grown and tended for him until they are
ready and matured, the far Asian who
rises from the common coolie TO some
times a. comparatively high position, car
ries with him the humble pipe of brass
fittings, clay chillun:, and coaconut-shell
prosperity 1t Will be crusted with jewels
The Engiisbnan loves his "BulIaog," the
Irishnlan his 'Fitzgerald'' clay the Ger
man his wassersack." And so it goes.
until it is not surprising to find here and
there man who collects pipes for their
variety and beauty only, and not cspec-
obtain from their possession.
One of the tive greatest pipe collectors
who ever lived was the Marquis De Wat
rsville, whose smoking room in Paris had
the walls covered with costly tynes, some
Fl them costing, it is claimed, as high as
10000 and all arranged with great beauty
OF design. The other was the well-known
Captain Bragg. Of London, whose collee-
ton valued at $4,000 who had agents
in every part of the known world and
whose collection was deemed worthy in
1889 Of being made a special exhibit during
the summer season at the famous Crystal
Palace near London.
SOME NOTABLE AMERICAN COLLEC-
TIONS.
Not only in Europe, however, are the
famous collections TO be found. Right
here in New York are there fine ones,
sarying from So 600 to $4,000 in value. One
OF the most beautiful collections is that of
Pierre Lorillard, the tobacco manufactur-
er and race horse owner of Jersey City
his collection is estimated to be worth
about $1,000. The gem of it is a. knicker-
hooker pipe, which has stem about
tUenty-four inches in length, and is one
of the Oldest pipes of the revolutionary
period. $ ,. Wilson. of this city, has
collection llued at $4,000. He is very
shy of admit ing that he has such thing
as pipe belonging TO MN; Dut ms coliec-
tiCn Is mounted in handsome cabinets.
and some Of the specimens are miracles
OF art and workmanship and design. They
are all meerSchaumS.
OF course it is known that number of
the finest specimens of the NienneSe art
are somewhat D1OaQ IN execution, ana IL
does not do for every collector to shout
his catalogue from the housetops. Antho-
ny Comstock only last spring demanded
that a prominenent cigar dealer in this
city should not place in his show window
some miracles of meerSchaun carvings,
which represented such well-knoWn SUBJ
Judgement of Paris .'Narcissus.' etc.
although the pictures from which the
carvings We're made have excited the adj
miration of the civilized world and are
worth thousands of dollars.
THE ST. NICHOLAS PIPE.
Ogden Geolet has a very fine collection
of meerschaums which he has been many
years getting together In his collection
is a very fine representation of Washing
ton 1rving'S DIETRICH Knickerbocller And
his rare pipe is the famous St Nicholas
society pipe which is the work of an
American artist in meerschaum, Fritz Kali
denberg, and which is regularly smoked
at the annual dinner at Delmonicos of
this leading society. The pipe is of the
comfortable carved shape, and has sitting
on the cover of the bowl an eXquiSitely
carved figure of old Peter Stuyvesant
other carving represents Wanter Van
Twiller, the first governor of New AM
sterdam, and another portrays, reclining
under tree, Van CORTLAND, the first
governor of Communipaw. The work is
beautifully done, and the pipe is treas
uIed accordingly.
Fred" Gerhard has a very fine coIIec-
ton Nearly every pipe in his cabinet
presents q woman's head. and the types
tl beauty 6InDfaCeu the COUecIlOn rep
resents almost every nation on earth.
Some of the pipes being colored or par
TALLY colored gives them an air of nat
uralnesS in the carvings which the white
meerschaum does not yield.
A. F. TAFT, the artist, is a great smoker
and has quite collection of meer-
schaums, but he has a weakness which is
found in not more than one collector in a
century, and that is a weakness for Civ
ing away specimens. to intimate friends.
NJ. TAFT smokes all his specimens and
after he has had one for a time. and
when 1T seems to be improving, some one
will admire it and away it goes. He. still
retains one. however, which he bought in
Liverpool and commenced to smoke about
fifty years ago.
The late Dr. Norvin Green was an en-
thusiastic collector. His finest specimen
was brought him few years ago from
Heidelberg by his daughter. 1t would
seem that this collecting mania ran in the
blood. for his son, James Green, who
spends a good deal of his time in Europe,
has an even finer collection than his faith
ers. The Rev. John Murphy, of st. Fran
els Aavier's, is a great collector so, too,
are !. O. A. Ward the sculptor, the Rev.
Waldo Messaros. J. A. Harper. Mr.. Cisco,
the banker. w: s. Woods, II. c. Dereham.
J. Richardson White Cthe "Deacon's'' SOM
W. Post George Ehret Cwhose teutonic
masterpieces are gems of artl, Frank En-
ret, George J. Gould and Colonel FRED
Grant. The latter secured many fine
specimens while located in Vienna.
PIPE SCULPTURES OF PUBLIC MEN
AND SOCIETY BELLIES.
The beauty of the meerschaum pipe lies
IN its adaptability to expression. A skill
ful artist car so carve a pipe that when
finished it will have light and shade not
TO be produced, possibly, with any other
substance. And under the coloring that
smoking the pipe produces are brought
out details and effects that even the artist
probably did not foresee. In coloring,
when a pine is in design the head of a
woman the hair viii first show the color
although it is the thicSest part of the pipe,
But If the design is a Nubian head the
Taq u-i1l pQlOr first tEa 1Kllffa Rnr-
nous round the head last. This. it is
claimed. is due to the waking" process
through which the pipe is passed after it
is made.
The latest fancy in meerschaun collect
ing is for pipes carved into the exact por-
traits of well-known society or public peo-
pie. For instance, there is Fifth avenue
resident. Mr.. Demuth; who has the por-
traits of all the presidents of the United
States from Washington to Harrison,
each one carved on a valuable pipe which
is mounted with wonderful green or gray
amber and placed in a separate case lined
with crimson velvet, the pipes being ar
ranged in clips so as TO stand out and
show TO the best advantage. This collec-
ton was recently on view at the Academy
of Art and universally admired. AIR. De-
muth has also pipes bearing the portraits
of women prominent in the "400,'' and
others embodying remembrances of the
summer girl.
To obtain pipes bearing real portraits it
is first necessary to secure three photo
graphs OF the person whose portrait is de-
sired. These must be full face and the
two profiles. taken at one and the same
sitting. They are given to the carver.
VINO. taking the rneerSchaun1. by degrees
evolves first one view of the face and then
the other. the progress being gagged not
by the direct scrutiny OF the eye but by
a reflection in the mirror, that enabling
the artist to detect defects which would
escape the direct view of the eye. IF 1T is
not desired to desecrate the inside of the
fair head with the emptiness of the pipe
bowl. tiny statuettes not two inches high