Product Description This is the first American book to consider the history and development of the tobacco-smoking pipe as an art form and is an illustrated guide for pipe collectors. Here the author has assembled fact and fancy, history laced with humor, and a chronological collection of pipes. The accompanying text explains pipe styles, materials, and values. Besides present-day briars and corn cobs, pipes can be found made of meerschaum, porcelain, ivory, amber, silver, gold, semi-precious stones and rare woods. Craftsmen have combined imagination, whim, and fantasy to create pipes of fine artistic value. About the Author Ben Rapaport has been an avid pipe collector for more than twenty years and is the author of A Tobacco Source Book (1972). His interest has led him to acquire a great library for tobacco research, which he shares in the form of a chapter of recommended reading. Included are his suggestions for repairs and restoration to pipes.