No one knows when and where the first tobacco pipe in history originated, but we do know for certain that it derived from ancient imagery, probably dating back to prehistoric times, stimulated by inhaling smoke from a fire.
Then, nature never lacked elements that, with some modification, could be adapted for smoke inhalation, such as a hollow bone, a rolled leaf or a strand of straw.
But to learn more about the earliest pipe smokers we must wait for the earliest written records and those few remaining archaeological finds.
The origins of the tobacco pipe
The tobacco pipe in the ancient world
Before tobacco, smoking was considered a "mediator between men and gods," always associating it with a religious ritual.
In fact, ancient oracles, such as the one at Delphi, read the divine word through fumigation.
The association smoke and religion still exists, in the Amazon, and in the use of incense in Catholic churches.
From the religious purpose, we then moved on to the therapeutic virtues of smoke, given off by burning plants, by idea of the Greeks.
Not surprisingly, Hippocrates, the first master of scientific medicine, prescribed fumigation to treat particular gynecological affections.
Even the Romans inhaled smoke to cure common ailments, often with the help of a hollowed-out bone or, according to some historians, actual clay pipes.
These are the first real smoking instruments, which can be considered the first “historical" tobacco pipes.
The tobacco pipe in the Middle Ages
Iron tobacco pipes, called Gallo-Roman, were found in the Jura (on the border between France and Switzerland) and Burgundy.
However, none of these tobacco pipes, once unearthed, were formally authenticated.
This, because traces of techniques adopted much later in the ancient world were found on most of them.
Moreover, there is no evidence of tobacco pipe use throughout the Middle Ages.
For these reasons, historians believe that the tobacco pipe was not known before the 16th century in the Old World.
In Africa, however, they did know the use of the tobacco pipe in very early times: early explorers from Africa brought tobacco pipes made of copper, wood, and iron, even finely carved ones, but there is no reliable indication that this practice predates the early 16th century.
American Indians are true ancestors of the pipe smoker, since, until the 15th century, they were the only ones who enjoyed burning tobacco.
The use of tobacco by Amerindians is evidenced by objects dating back as far as 15,000 years, thanks to excavations in the Yucatán Peninsula.
Tobacco pipe use in pre-Columbian America is documented by an ancient depiction found in a low relief of a 6th-century A.D. Mayan temple.
Smoking in the New World also had a purely religious purpose, but, gradually, Amerindians began to embrace the more mundane purpose of pleasure.
For this very reason, European explorers, in the late 16th century, began to imitate the Amerindians as lovers of the smoke itself.
The tobacco pipe in the Renaissance
Cristoforo Colombo discovered tobacco on the same day he discovered the New World: October 15, 1492.
For the first time, a European was confronted with tobacco.
Sailor Rodrigo de Jerez was the first European to smoke tobacco and, at the same time, he was also its first victim, due to the intolerance of political and religious authorities against this plant.
In fact, he was arrested on a Barcelona street on his way back from expeditions to the New World.
Those who smoked, in fact, were judged to be sorcerers, because they exhaled smoke through their noses and mouths like the devil.
Despite the severe punishments, tobacco lovers were not discouraged; on the contrary, they became more and more numerous.
From the early 16th century, the use of tobacco experienced great success in Europe.
In France, it was introduced by French ambassador Jean Nicot, who sent some to the king's mother, Catherine de' Medici, who suffered from migraines.
Caterina de' Medici, after trying the tobacco, got relief from it and made the plant known at court, launching a real fashion.
From Jean Nicot's name, nicotine was then named.
Since the second half of the 16th century, the main driving force behind the rise of tobacco has been its therapeutic reputation, considered almost a miracle remedy.
Doctors considered tobacco on par with a medicine, even capable of curing almost any ailment.
This fad became so great that imports and local crops could no longer meet the demand.
Until that time, tobacco was consumed in a variety of ways: inhaled in leaf, sniffed in powder form, chewed or boiled.
The use of the tobacco pipe began to establish itself in the early 17th century in England, after the first factories were opened.
The use of the tobacco pipe spread through the experience of English sailors, who were familiar with the clay pipes of the North American Indians.
Soon, tobacco pipe use was introduced at court, becoming a fashion among the aristocracy and, soon, a staple of the British elite.
Around 1600, all English people of good social standing smoked pipes, regardless of gender or age: even children carried a tobacco pipe in their school bags when they went to school, smoking it at recess, with the teacher teaching them how it should be held and how to fill it.
This, because it was believed that tobacco was necessary to keep healthy and that it was a good habit to start smoking from an early age.
During this period of tobacco fashion, Sovereign James I was one of its most bitter opponents, in fact he considered it harmful to health and only profitable for the Spanish trade.
Despite growing concern about this "Indian vice," the tobacco wave continued to rage in the Old World.
The sovereign's only consolation was the institution of a tax on tobacco shipped by the colonists of America, later imitated by Richelieu in France.
At that point, the problem was only related to the scarcity of tobacco pipes; in fact, Indian clay tobacco pipes were produced in small quantities and were particularly fragile.
Finally, the first artisanal tobacco pipe factories appeared in Europe, with the first one springing up in 1575 in Broseley, a town in Shropshire.
Clay tobacco pipes with a keg-shaped stove were made, and they recorded great success from the start.
Thus, numerous factories sprang up in London as early as 1600, but King James I still remained hostile to smoking, leading to the decline of English tobacco pipe production.
Numerous Catholic craftsmen fled to Holland, more specifically to Gouda, where the "Crowned Rose" manufactory of manufacturer William Baernelts prospered.
Gouda became the main center of tobacco pipe production in Europe, with English tobacco pipe makers retaining a monopoly on techniques learned in England, but having their pieces fired in Dutch kilns.
This what today we would call "partnership" ended in 1630, when the Dutch appropriated English manufacturing techniques, which led to the issuance of regulations, which required that they stamp their own mark on every tobacco pipe they produced.
Gouda tobacco pipes, however, were very simple and lacked any decoration, and it was not until the 18th century that more elaborate products began to be made.
In fact, tobacco pipes began to be varnished and polished.
From this time on, some tobacco pipes became luxury items.
For example, the use of the "wedding pipe" developed: when a suitor intended to marry a woman, he would go to her with a tobacco pipe in his mouth and ask her for fire. If the woman lit the man’s tobacco pipe it meant that there was a chance of success.
If the next time the girl asked for a few puffs of smoke, it meant that she agreed to the wedding and therefore the official engagement could be announced to the whole village.
The evolution of the modern tobacco pipe
In the nineteenth century, France became a major center of tobacco pipe production throughout Europe, thanks to the establishment of numerous tobacco pipe factories in many French cities.
The famous Gambier firm, for example, specialized in the production of tobacco pipes carved with the effigy of famous people (Napoleon, Victor Hugo) or the reproduction of the most diverse objects.
The model that was most successful was the "Jacob," which depicted the serene face of an old, bearded, haggard man.
The flowing beard was the cause of this model's success because, while the stove was hollowed out in the head, which immediately became red-hot, the beard remained cool during combustion, thus offering the smoker the opportunity to hold the tobacco pipe in his hand without burning himself.
In a France constantly in a state of war, the tobacco pipe had become the soldier's greatest comfort; not surprisingly, Louis XIV (who, by the way, hated the smell of tobacco and forbade its use at court), always made sure that these were equipped with a pipe and tinderbox.
It was not until two centuries later, during the Second Empire, that the tobacco pipe became a common object of French daily life.
In fact, the owners of "cafes" and taverns of the time provided tobacco pipes and tobacco by attaching a rack to the walls of the premises where regular customers kept the "calumet" reserved for them.
Those who could not afford to smoke tobacco pipes were content to encrust the tobacco pipes of the more refined smokers, who gave them their first puffs of new tobacco pipes because they were too aggressive for their delicate palates.
Curious how one of the most common synonyms for the word tobacco pipe came about, namely bouffarde.
It is named after French Imperial Guard corporal Jean-Népomucéne Bouffardi, who never abandoned his beloved tobacco pipe, even in the toughest battles.
It is said that when he died in Friedland, his arms were torn off by a ball and one of his hands was found still clutching his most faithful companion.
Napoleon, for his part, did not have a great relationship with the tobacco pipe, limiting himself to sniffing tobacco.
Only once did he have the opportunity to try it, with the ambassador of Persia who gave him a beautiful oriental tobacco pipe, but, after several attempts to light it, he was unable to expel the smoke, which penetrated his throat, causing him to simply scream, once he caught his breath, "Take it away! My heart is bursting!"
A major breakthrough in tobacco pipe making came with the invention of the removable mouthpiece by Höhr's craftsmen during the 17th century.
Also during those years, the clay tobacco pipe began to experience a period of decline due to its excessive fragility: more durable materials gradually began to take hold.
Indeed, iron tobacco pipes began to appear, but they had the defect of becoming red-hot after a few puffs, making them impossible to hold for a few minutes.
Certainly better in this respect were the silver tobacco pipes, equipped with a perforated lid that slowed down combustion, which, however, only the wealthiest smokers could afford.
A decisive turning point came with tobacco pipe makers, who began to produce tobacco pipes with mouthpiece and entrance in different materials, with the entrance usually made of mascara wood and the mouthpiece of deer horn or amber.
In France, on the other hand, porcelain became the most popular material because of its great resistance to heat, but with the problem of poor porosity, which was remedied by the addition of a special crosshead, called a "water pocket.”
It also lent itself to a large number of shapes and decorations, considering that its paste was rather easy to shape, giving craftsmen to unleash their creativity.
Soon, large manufactures began to be joined by artisans who specialized in tobacco pipe decoration, meeting the growing demand for custom tobacco pipes.
There were those who had their own portraits made, or those who had characters of the time depicted.
Thus more original tobacco pipes were born, intended more for decorative use than anything else.
Ivory tobacco pipes were also extraordinarily beautiful, but extremely fragile and practically inflammable.
Wood, however, was the material that gave rise to the greatest number of tobacco pipe-making attempts.
The problem with these tobacco pipes was that the stove tended to burn along with the tobacco.
It was only with the invention of the briar pipe, the only material that was extremely resistant to heat and fire, safeguarding the aroma and taste of the tobacco.
The inventor of the briar pipe has never been officially recognized, giving rise to various hypotheses, but with a common denominator: in all likelihood, the discovery occurred in southern France.
A rather amusing but implausible story goes that a French tobacco pipe maker, inconsolable over Napoleon's death, went on a pilgrimage to Corsica the year of the emperor's death, in 1821.
During one of his walks, he allegedly broke his tobacco pipe and apparently met a shepherd who made him another one, with Napoleon's effigy, from a briar log.
The French maker, enthusiastic about the quality of the wood and the taste of the smoke, brought back a large number of logs.
Around 1750, a number of workshops sprang up in St. Claude that launched into the manufacture of wooden tobacco pipes, soon becoming one of the most important production centers.
Briar immediately imposed itself over all other materials, relegating them to the role of a curiosity for tobacco pipe smokers.
Production continued to grow until the 1920s, reaching about 30 million pieces per year.
But with the economic crisis of the following decade and, especially, with the global spread of the cigarette, tobacco pipes began their long decline: suffice it to say that in St. Claude about 2 million pipes were manufactured in 1970, currently less than 700,000.
History of the meerschaum pipe
One hundred years before the birth of the briar tobacco pipe, the meerschaum pipe was born, the only one to which briar never cast a shadow.
It seems to have been born by chance on 1723 in the workshop of a Budapest shoemaker named Karel Kovacs.
In that year, Count Andrassy brought back from a trip to Turkey a piece of light white stone, from which he had the idea of making a tobacco pipe out of it.
Count Andrassy was thrilled with the appearance and performance of this tobacco pipe, exhibiting it not only in all the salons of Budapest, but even at the court of Vienna.
The meerschaum pipe had been launched.
We are talking about tobacco pipes that were reserved for the aristocracy to the upper middle class, representing a lavish gift offered for great occasions.
In fact, their price was really high.
This mineral came to be called "meerschaum" because of its color and lightness, such that it floated on water, with the deposits found mostly in Anatolia and beginning to be exploited from 1675.
Production continued to grow until the 1920s, reaching about 30 million pieces per year.
But with the economic crisis of the following decade and, especially, with the global spread of the cigarette, tobacco pipes began their long decline: suffice it to say that in St. Claude about 2 million tobacco pipes were manufactured in 1970, currently less than 700,000.
The tobacco pipe in the 21st century
At present, the briar pipe accounts for the entirety of tobacco pipes produced in the world, followed only, at a great distance, by meerschaum pipes.
The art of meerschaum pipes, unfortunately, was threatened in 1961 by the Turkish government's decision to stop exporting this material, favoring instead local, but more cheap production.
In 1869, corn tobacco pipes emerged, invented by an American farmer, which were later exported to Europe in World War II.
For the past two decades or so, the tobacco pipe has lost much popularity, with production figures steadily declining.
This phenomenon mostly affects the common, mass-produced tobacco pipes, while the “high-end" tobacco pipes have an increasing demand.
Then, one must also consider the increase in the average age of tobacco pipe smokers.
A recent French study revealed that more than 80% of pipe smokers are over 35 years old.
However, it appears that anti-tobacco campaigns in developed countries are not the cause of this decline.
On the contrary, these are believed to favor the tobacco pipe, since the latter has been shown to be less harmful than the cigarette.
Tobacco pipe manufacturers, in fact, have to deal with a social reality that has changed profoundly from the past all over the world.
Today, the era of the exaltation of personal success and efficiency, where disposable products rule the day, undermines the tobacco pipe, which rather hints at meditation and a more human and serene measure of time.
