Why smoke a Pipe?
In my long experience as a smoker, even before as the owner of Pipeonline, I have been asked, "Is there any other object capable of creating a sense of pleasure, serenity, and comfort, like the pipe?"
The answer has always been no, nothing is worth more than a good pipe smoke.
This is precisely why I would like to create a bridge between those who have no idea what lies behind this ritual and the immense pleasure of pipe smoking.
I would like to do this first of all by projecting an image.
Imagine a calm, dimly lit room where a gentleman sits sunken in his comfortable armchair in front of the hearth of his fireplace.
This man is experiencing his personal oasis of peace, fantasizing in his thoughts; in one hand a glass of cognac, and in the other a tobacco pipe from which slow spirals of smoke rise.
This atmosphere already reflects a fundamental difference with the cigarette smoker: the pipe smoker savors his pleasure slowly, in small puffs, and what he inhales is not smoke, but his serenity.
The scene we have imagined, however, is only a small part of the oasis of peace that the tobacco pipe manages to create.
Almost all of our senses are involved in this extraordinary experience.
Starting with the eyes, I am seduced by the harmony of shapes and colors from the first moment I see a tobacco pipe I like.
I love to feel it by touch, clutching it in my hand, especially when it exudes a sweet warmth.
And the nostrils become enchanted, with the aroma of tobacco gently urging them on even before they start smoking.
That leaves the taste buds, enraptured when they come in contact with this smoke of subtle, incomparable flavors that are as good as those of the most exquisite wines or teas.
Those who have never smoked a pipe, or worse, those who have never known how to smoke it well, might finally get an idea of all they are missing: a total pleasure, involving four of our senses, and in addition, the spirit.
Much more than a smoking instrument
There are so many qualities that make the tobacco pipe a totally unique object in human history that I could only use words that transcend everyday activities to describe it: magic, mystery.
Only a sterile dictionary could call the tobacco pipe a simple tool for smoking tobacco.
Beyond appearances, the tobacco pipe is something that has always been connected to the sacred, to mystery.
It is an object that encompasses everything: fire, earth, water, air, which the smoker loves and protects because it gives him so much in return.
This nature of the tobacco pipe, which goes beyond its immediate function, also explains why so many personalities, such as painters and sculptors, have depicted their deep passion for the tobacco pipe.
The tobacco pipe according to artists
The "Blower with a Pipe" painted by Georges de La Tour is a memorable example of what I have said so far.
It is known that de La Tour depicted secular scenes in daylight, while those of sacred inspiration in the dark.
His pipe smoker should have been depicted in daylight, on a par with a card player or musician. But de La Tour chose night.
The artist did not want to reduce pipe smoking to a mere pleasure, on a par with any other.
But he wanted to show how the smoker, with the ritual leading up to the lighting, enters the world of the sacred. It is only the fire coming from the pipe's brazier that illuminates the scene.
Scene that frames only the smoker and his tobacco pipe, surrounded by mystery, in a universe made of quiet bliss, where nothing or no one can penetrate.
Many other artists, philosophers and scientists have recognized a "creative" function in the tobacco pipe.
Schopenhauer said, "Smoking the pipe dispenses one from thinking." In this little lapidary phrase, he meant that by smoking, thoughts come of their own accord.
The looming threat of cigarettes
Toward the end of the 19th century, cigarettes began to gain more and more popularity, and Stephane Mallarmé (French poet and writer), who had succumbed to them, recognized that only the tobacco pipe could stimulate him to work and, more importantly for a poet, feed him with dreams and memories.
From that realization, he threw away all cigarettes and took up his tobacco pipe again. Already from the first puff he was enchanted by the magic of his pipe.
But where does this mysterious drive for creativity and intellect come from, as, moreover, the likes of Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Isaac Newton or Èdouard Manet can testify?
How does the tobacco pipe promote the activity of the spirit?
Answering these questions is Baudelaire, who in a famous sonnet lets the tobacco pipe itself speak: "I am an author's pipe; (...) When he is filled with grief (...) I embrace and cradle his soul (...) And avail him a mighty dictam / That charms his heart and heals / His weary spirit."
Baudelaire, in these touching words, tells us how the tobacco pipe heals the smoker's labors, relieves him of his sorrows, and cradles his soul.
"To the soul in pain, the pipe is like a mother's caress to her sick child", says an Indian proverb.
The tobacco pipe nourishes the spirit, and once restored and invigorated, it can flourish and grow in extraordinary ways.
Magic that goes beyond the unconscious
The tobacco pipe, unlike the cigar or cigarette, is also an object.
Its beauty is not limited to the smoke itself, but shapes and materials are also part of it.
The enthusiast cannot help but touch and contemplate it, even when it is unlit.
Its shape, combining the compact volume of the stove and the sleek line of the mouthpiece, itself suggests a balance that appeases the spirit.
Then if the craftsman has an artistic soul, that's when the tobacco pipe becomes a small masterpiece that soothes the spirit.
But what most distinguishes the tobacco pipe from its competitors is the ritual surrounding it.
The future of the tobacco pipe
After World War I, when the cigarette began to take hold, the tobacco pipe began to have its decline, as if our current way of life would not allow us to sacrifice time to its ritual.
While at one time the depictions of the tobacco pipe in the arts were numerous, today they have almost disappeared.
There are many causes for this trend, as well as for reading.
Indeed, slow smoking is similar to the latter: both require active participation.
We believe that the tobacco pipe, along with books, will never disappear from human habits, because it has always offered a singular and inimitable experience.
Those who feel assaulted by the insecurity and violence of the world will receive the gift of the comfort of withdrawal into themselves, while those who suffer from their loneliness will participate in a ritual that can be shared, in the comfort of conviviality.