Does anybody, really?

[Idlefellow]

I frankly chuckle and shake my head when I look at many of the "artesian" pipes that are advertised. In addition to being outlandishly overpriced, does anybody actually smoke them ugly things? I suppose if you want to collect them as a work of art like sculpture and you have that kind of disposable income, then maybe. But seriously, some of these makers have to be going out of their way to try to create something that far away from an attractive, efficient smoking instrument. And there you have it: one old guy's out-of-touch opinion.

 

[Zeno Marx]

I'd like to see one of these pipe sculpture collections. Really. I've long been curious about how they're displayed, if they're displayed, if they're fondled and appreciated and put back on their pipe stand, or what. There have always been the pipe guys who don't smoke the pipes, so I've wondered about it for a long time. I can remember going to pipe shows and seeing hundreds of Castellos or Ascortis on a table, all having been smoked. Massive collections, but massive smoking collections. But then in the shadows, I'd hear about 500 Charatans in a collection, and with the whispers, part of the subtext was that the higher end, truly oddball and pricey pipes never met a flame. I wanted to see those, but you had to be in a secret society club or something. I have a suspicion it is happening with tinned tobacco now too. No real intention of smoking it. Collecting it. Stockpiling it. Every hobby has this though, especially now. With as awful as the world is...with as financially stretched and stressed as the world is...there are A LOT of bored, insanely wealthy people out there buying niche and eccentric stuff just to be buying niche and eccentric stuff, because why not? A $5K Danish freehand is like them buying a $150 Peterson to the average person. It's pocket change to them. They spend 3Xs (more like many many Xs) that on a wrist watch. You want to see some nuttery? Go check out the watch collectors. And they aren't wearing those watches out in public. It's too dangerous to walk around with a $250K watch. They're buying them to walk around their walk-in closet, look in the mirror for a few seconds, and then put it back on the self-winder mechanism in the drawer.

 

[daveinlax]

I'd like to see one of these pipe sculpture collections. Really.

You should have attended the Las Vegas Intl Pipe Show. We had an awesome collection displayed in its angular glory at our Collectors Showcase event on Friday.
The two huge Charatan collectors passed away decades ago but there is one guy with a very impressive collection of Charatan’s and Dunhill’s that I saw for the first time in years in Chicago. I’m hoping he will bring his collection out for display again one of these days.

 

[Swede]

I'd like to see one of these pipe sculpture collections. Really. I've long been curious about how they're displayed, if they're displayed, if they're fondled and appreciated and put back on their pipe stand, or what. There have always been the pipe guys who don't smoke the pipes, so I've wondered about it for a long time. I can remember going to pipe shows and seeing hundreds of Castellos or Ascortis on a table, all having been smoked. Massive collections, but massive smoking collections. But then in the shadows, I'd hear about 500 Charatans in a collection, and with the whispers, part of the subtext was that the higher end, truly oddball and pricey pipes never met a flame. I wanted to see those, but you had to be in a secret society club or something. I have a suspicion it is happening with tinned tobacco now too. No real intention of smoking it. Collecting it. Stockpiling it. Every hobby has this though, especially now. With as awful as the world is...with as financially stretched and stressed as the world is...there are A LOT of bored, insanely wealthy people out there buying niche and eccentric stuff just to be buying niche and eccentric stuff, because why not? A $5K Danish freehand is like them buying a $150 Peterson to the average person. It's pocket change to them. They spend 3Xs (more like many many Xs) that on a wrist watch. You want to see some nuttery? Go check out the watch collectors. And they aren't wearing those watches out in public. It's too dangerous to walk around with a $250K watch. They're buying them to walk around their walk-in closet, look in the mirror for a few seconds, and then put it back on the self-winder mechanism in the drawer.

I've always had the attitude that with my means, the way I can justify/ rationalize spending money on collectible things is by using them. I've got antique axes, old Svea 123 stoves, and now more pipes, etc., but they all work and are used. I could see how people with more means might just collect, and maybe in the end, this is a benefit in that it preserves old stuff for people who will eventually use it...maybe.

 

[bergencabin]

I feel like it's a waste to not use something. If you are a collector, can you fully appreciate an item you have coveted for so long, if you cannot enjoy the primary purpose that it was made for? Yes, the aesthetic is one major part of what makes pipes special, but that's, at most, only half of it. That's just my 2 cents.