Chats on Household Curios

by Fred. W. Burgess

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earlier forms of clay pipes gradually gave way to the long-stemmed "churchwardens," which in course of time were again superseded by pipes with short stems.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 scrap 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 knobs 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 japanned 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 brass 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 brass 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 brass tobacco box illustrated 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.

FIG. 82.—THREE CURIOUS PIPE-STOPPERS.