Mike Rothenberg

This evening while smoking Brown Clunee in a smooth red Capitello lovat I thought that life as a pipe smoker has never been better. Back in the '70s and '80s I was limited to the pipe selection at the local shops, or the occasional pipe show.  Info about pipes and tobacco was also quite limited.  I got the same old opinions from the same old guys I ran into at the pipe/tobacco shop.  Well, now is the time of the internet and thousands of pipes are available to choose from.  Anytime I want to I can go on line and read what other people have to say about tobaccos and pipes.  The result is that my pipe smoking pleasure is at an all time high level.  The adventure of new tobacco discoveries along with seeing the latest pipe offerings from around the world are killing my bank account, but boy am I having fun.  I enjoy English, American, and Italian pipes.  But what about those expensive hand made Danish pipes?  I don't have any of those because the prices are just so high.  Are they worth the hundreds ( $500+ )they cost?  I know that the answer is, "well that depends upon who you ask."  Anyway, does anyone wish to add to my enjoyment of what I consider the best time ever to be a pipe smoker?  Anyway, keep the bowl full, lit, and sweet!

Robert Donnelly

Sounds about right to me!!! I think as far as the 'high end' pipes you asked about, it's more of a matter of taste, and what you can afford. Some just don't have $500+ including me, but there are still bargains to be found if you know where to look,.. and you have to know what your looking for, but there are some very respectable brands that don't cost nearly that much that will give you a decent smoke. I think in terms of a 'golden age' it refers to a period when 'high end' pipes were more affordable and smoking wasn't looked down upon.

Mike Jacobs

Nah, price and society are irrelevant, IMO, at least to me. This *is* the golden age as far as I'm concerned.

High-end pipes and good tobacco don't just grow on trees. They'll always (rightfully) find their own price in the market, the highest pricing favoring the smartest, most talented & most efficient craftsmen. That would be true under the "circumstances" of any "age." In any age, you have to "earn" the opportunity to enjoy the best of anything that's scarce. Therefore, price is neutral in defining a "golden age."

As far as being able to "smoke anywhere" I don't feel that I've ever given myself that freedom, nor that it truly even exists as a freedom. Smoke has always bothered some people and been inappropriate under some circumstances: in close company, fine dining, when hazardous, etc.. Gentlemen used to take their cigars to the patio or another room after dinner. While Today's anti-smoking culture goes a bit overboard, its generally a reaction to inappropriate "freedoms" long-abused by inconsiderate smokers (of course we can still smoke in bars here in NYC, where smoke belongs). So, again, the freedom that I've never had makes today's anti-smoking culture irrelevant to me (so far - knock on wood).

I especially consider this a "golden age" because it's not overrun by big business. The people we deal with are friendly, honorable, and accessible. We have an abundance of affordable pipes & tobacco than I could ever consume, if you don't count F&P going out of business and abandoning Inverness, Fez and Fools Cap!

Peter West

I totally agree. This is a wonderful time to be a pipe smoker, at least in terms of tobaccos. The variety and quality of pipe tobacco out there is superb. While I agree there are some excellent pipes being made, I would argue that quality is so-so for mid-price pipes. Back when pipes were really popular, say through the early 70s, you could get a real decent GBD, Kaywoodie, Wally Frank, etc., in other words, a pipe that was both affordable and well made. Now, one has to pay $100 or more to get real quality. Oh, well. I suppose we're all making more money now and we can afford the good stuff.

firedancer

I don't know.  I'm inclined ti think that the golden age for pipes was the seventies and early eighties.  It was much easier to go into a brick and mortar establish and find some nice freehands.  I know that I've said before how much I miss the ones I traded.  You can still get beautiful freehands now, as was said, if you know where and how to look, but they are harder to come by.

Mike Jacobs

I can't imagine that pipes & pipe tobacco have been enjoyed so intensely at any other time in history. Sure, *more* people enjoyed the hobby during other eras, but I'd venture a guess that even then the core "fanatic-base" has never been as large as it is here on asp.

'Course... I'm guessing but it doesn't matter. I'm having fun!

Runowski

Perhaps, we are in another "golden age" where the quality and the diversity of pipes and tobaccos are greater than before.  IMHO, the times when I was a growing up, in the late 1940s and early '50s seemed to me as an unprecedented period.  More people smoking pipes, more domestic blends available, more visible smokers in the media and pipe shops everywhere.  In Philadelphia alone, there were probably 15-20 shops in center city as well as corner stores carrying popular blends, not exotic but popular.  I can recall in college classes that more than a few professors would light a pipe while lecturing or monitoring a lab.  or, family gatherings with uncles and extended family members and there might be 8-10 pipe smokers present.  It's good today, but it seems to have been better.

lordmargate

This is the new golden age of pipes. I have been a pipe smoker since the late 60's. There is so much more information available now. There are also more tobacco blends available because of the ability to go on line and order from shops I will never get to in person. Same goes with pipes. Between eBay and the internet, and shows like the Chicago Pipe Show, I can buy almost anything, anytime, from a 1915 Dunhill to a Castello made yesterday. I have never been more excited about pipe smoking. I have never had a worse case of PAD and TAD. I have enjoyed buying from dealers in Italy and Denmark, Las Vegas and New York, etc., not to mention Iwan Ries in my own home town of Chicago. Yes, it is harder to find a place to smoke now than in the 60's, when you could smoke anywhere and anytime - offices, restaurants (although even then some of them limited pipe and cigar smoking), even elevators. Now you have to find a bar, a good restaurant, or a cigar store with a lounge. Lets keep this golden age alive. Buy a pipe or tobacco today!

Mike Rothenberg

Here's more support for my belief that now is the golden era of pipe smoking.  How many people reading this have smoked GLP tobacco, Two Friends, Tobacco Esoterica, Butera, etc.?  Where did you learn about these tobaccos?  How about all of the individual pipe carvers, where did you hear about them?  Sure, in the past many more people smoked, and they smoked everywhere. Pipes were cheaper, tobacco was everywhere.  But they all smoked pipes made by the big producers who advertised and dominated the market place. They all smoked the same tobaccos from the big companies that had the money to tell everyone that their stuff was the best.  Now, we pipe smokers are a cult, small in number and viewed as misguided and lacking in sound judgment by the masses of non smokers.  But, we have passion, great tobaccos, wonderful hand made pipes, the internet, and each other to talk to about something we love.  Hey, this didn't happen in years past!  Try some Haddos' Delight if you need proof.

Gregory Pease

Interesting how our perceptions often don't carry the necessary historical or economic perspective. I try to explain this to my mom when she laments that a loaf of bread used to cost a few pence. She'll never quite get it, I'm afraid.

Times have changed, for sure. Comoy, GBD, Loewe, for instance, used to be really fine pipes. Now, even the higher grades of these once great marques are mere shadows of what they were. Even 25 years ago, the idea of a fill in a GBD Virgin was unconscionable. But, look at what the market offers us today: beautiful pipes from artisan makers that might not have had a chance to succeed before the internet; the availability of some really wonderful volume-produced pipes; a dizzying variety of tobaccos; a wealth of information.

Today, you can ask questions directly of a pipe maker or a tobacco blender. It's marvelous!

I won't go so far as to say it is THE Golden Age, but it certainly one of the Golden Ages. We may be on the cusp of THE Golden Age, but only time will tell, assuming we can keep the government off our collective backs long enough for it to develop fully.

Robert Crim

Of course the definition of "Golden Age" will vary with the parameters of one's concerns, but using one from music, the Golden Age of the lute was when every body had one and everybody played one.  It was not even considered "odd."

Never mind that the lute makers were few and far between, the strings were shit, the music was largely simple minded and many of the finest players died from the plague.  It is considered the Golden Age now by lute players that have much finer lutes, much better strings, cases, and access to music, written and recorded, from all the composers from all the countries for 300 years.

Transferring that attitude to pipes, I would have to consider the Golden Age of pipe smoking to be that period after the common use of briar as a pipe material and before the advent of factory rolled cigarettes.....with or without filters.  Pipes were every where smoked and tolerated.  One was not considered some kind of a nut case because he/she had a cob/briar/meer stuck in their face on the street.

There is much to be said for not being considered "weird."

Jim Beard

If prevalence is you standard, the Golden Age of pipes was in 1925, the year of the Washington Naval Conference, when 25 million pipes were made and sold, worldwide.

That figure has never been matched, before or after.

But I do believe that quality pipes are more readily available to more pipe smokers at lower real cost (percentage of income, or inflation-adjusted price, however you wish to define it) than ever before.

And with the Lake District providing tobaccos that may be termed the best from the past, and GLPease providing the best he can come up with from U.S. resources today, there remains some cause for joy  even in this arena.

Terry McGinty

I pretty much agree with Greg on this one.  A point overlooked here is that today we have the advantage of obtaining pipes made by many new craftsman/artists that weren't available in the past.  We also have all the pasts makers and manufacturers available to us in the form of estate or rare unsmoked collected pipes on occasion.  Add to this all the new tobaccos available that have been created in recent years.  I know you will say many have vanished and gone forever.  That's true enough, but even many of those can still be found if one is willing to search and then pay the price.  With the advantage of the internet (thanks to Al Gore;-) we can find just about anything we want from today or the past.

So... I say this IS the golden age of the pipe.   It's kinda present moment living, so to speak.

Oh, I know there was something nice about walking on the street and seeing many pipe smokers in the old days.  I sometimes go several days without seeing another pipe smoker.  There were negatives in those times also.  I remember parties, restaurants and even doctors waiting rooms that were so smoke filled that even the most hardened smokers would get choked up. Nope, I wouldn't go back, even if I could, and most of you are younger than my kids:-)

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