Pipe Anatomy

To smoke pipe tobacco, one obviously needs a pipe; and, like the tobacco that is put in them, there are a great deal of kinds of pipes including briar, corncob, meerschaum, clay, cherry, wood, glass, gourd, and metal, among others. In the photos below, the bowls are made of the material described (the stem material and shape may vary).

Briar pipes are made from growth (or burl) on the root system of the White Heath Tree, which is a Mediterranean shrub that grows primarily in dry, arid, rocky wastelands. Briar Burl happens to be tough, porous and nearly impervious to heat.

Corncob pipes are cheap pipes made from maize cobs that are dried for two years and then hollowed out to make the bowl shape.

Cherry wood pipes have been around for quite a long time and, as their name suggests, they are made of cherry wood. However, this wood is prone to splitting and does not survive well. The bark is often left on this wood as this helps it keep from splitting, but the bark will eventually separate from the wood, ultimately leaving the wood vulnerable to splitting (although, clearly, the bark helps prolong the life of the pipe).

Meerschaum pipes are made of a soft, porous white stone, mainly found in Turkey. The stone absorbs a lot of the tobacco's tar; and, over time, this tar absorption gives the pipe a nut brown color. It has been used for pipes since the 17th century and is one of the most sought-after type of pipes.

Clay pipes are usually made of a fine white clay. Low-quality "clay" pipes are actually porcelain poured into a mold (which are porous and low quality). Clay pipes are traditionally unglazed. They burn hotter than other pipes, and because of their material, users have been known to put them directly into a fire to clean them. They apparently give a "pure" smoke, with no flavor addition from the pipe bowl (whereas natural woods can imbue their personality into a smoke).

Calabash pipes are made of from gourds of calabash vines (these now often have meerschaum or porcelain bowls set inside them).

Metal pipes made of steel, aluminum, or brass have been used for tobacco, although they were more popular in the 19th century for this purpose. They have come to be associated with drug smoking and their popularity for smoking tobacco has faded.

Pipe bowls come in many shapes, some of which are shown below.

Stems come in two general varieties: tapered and saddle bit (see left).

As if that wasn't enough to make thousands of unique pipes, there is one more factor to be considered: the angle between the bowl and the stem & shaft. "Straight pipes" have a bowl perpendicular to the shank and stem. "Bent pipes" usually have an angle of less than 90 degrees between the bowl and shank. They are described by a fraction of 90 degrees. So, a "half bent" pipe has an angle of 45 degrees. A "quarter bent" pipe has an angle of 22.5 degrees. A "full bent pipe" is one in which the shank and stem are almost parallel to the bowl, so that the bowl and shank form a letter "U." Some pipes also have bowls that bend away from the smoker with an angle of greater than 90 degrees, sometimes called a "Woodstock."

The "churchwarden" is a stem that is much longer than the shank. Other pipes have a shank much longer than the stem. Shanks can also be of different thickness.

Now then, we are ready for a further look at some pipes of the Canon. Fox example, when our fearless Doctor says, "There was . . . an A.D.P. briar-root pipe, a pouch of sealskin with half an ounce of long-cut Cavendish," (SILV) we immediately think of the common (but beautiful) briarwood pipes. We can instantly conjecture that ADP stands for a maker, likely in London, but one which we cannot specify although it must have been a somewhat common name in turn-of-the-century London. Leslie Klinger puts forth the supposition of London's A. Posener & Son who marketed their pipes under the name of "A.D. Pierson." At once, we also think of the fire or flue-cured Virginia tobacco that creates Cavendish; and the popular ribbon cut strips. As pouches of several varieties were often used to carry tobacco, I offer a photo of a seal skin pouch below.

Or, when Holmes say of the pipe left behind by a visitor in YELL, "A nice old briar, with a good long stem of what the tobacconists call amber . . . . it has, you see, been twice mended: once in the wooden stem and once in the amber. Each of these mends, done, as you observe, with silver bands, must have cost more than the pipe did originally" we should immediately bring to mind a pipe such as this (see image).

Amber-stemmed pipe with silver band.

As for our two protagonists, we know Holmes was a constant smoker and pipes were his smoking instrument of choice. In CROO, he proclaims, "I'll smoke a pipe with you with pleasure." He had many pipes which, for a pipe smoker, is not unusual. Pipes, depending on the material, often need time to cool after a smoke - and some pipe smokers let individual pipes rest a week or more between smokes. Also, pipes often take on the flavor of the tobacco smoked in them; so pipe smokers also have various pipes for different types of tobacco so that flavors will not become mingled. Holmes, however, had little regard for his pipes as he often allowed them to become very hot (by smoking them for hours on end) and failing to clean them. As Henry Zecher noted in "Sherlock Holmes and the 21st Century," "Watson's description of his favored clay pipe ~ 'old and oily clay' and 'his black clay pipe' ~ shows he rarely, if ever, cleaned it."

How much did Holmes smoke? Well, he had at least a daily "before breakfast pipe" (ENGI), an after-breakfast or "morning pipe" (CHAR, THOR ), and an evening pipe. (WIST). Though those were his routine smoking times, he might have also had a afternoon smoke and, clearly, when he had a case and was mulling over the facts, he smoked constantly. "It is quite a three-pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes" (REDH). In SILV Watson notes, "for a whole day my companion had rambled about the room with his chin upon his chest and his brows knitted, charging and recharging his pipe with the strongest black tobacco" (clearly, again, his black shag).

His "before-breakfast" pipe "was composed of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the mantelpiece (ENGI). The "plugs and dottles" were remaining small bits of plug tobacco or leftover, unburnt tobacco from previous smokes - quite a mish-mash if he bought more than one type of tobacco. Which, if I can, I would just like to say, "Ewwww."

As for the type of pipes he had, Holmes had (at the very least) an old briar-root pipe (SIGN), a black clay pipe (HOUN) also described as the "old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a counsellor" (IDEN), and "a long cherrywood pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a disputatious, rather than a meditative, mood" (COPP). They may have looked something like this:

Is one missing, you ask? The persistent sight of actors and illustrations bear Holmes with a calabash pipe. Well, alas, our dear detective never mentions having a calabash pipe; but William Gillette and other early actors used them in their depictions of Holmes, (possibly because the pipe's low center of gravity allows it to be held by the mouth alone, leaving the hands free for . . . acting). Since Gillette's performances, the calabash pipe has become symbolic of the great detective, though it is unlikely he ever owned one.

But, Holmes didn't always neatly place his pipes in the stand on the mantle. Sometimes they, and the tobacco, would end up in the coal-scuttle (MAZA).

There is plenty of evidence to show it was smoky residence at 221B. When smoking his black shag, Holmes sent up " thick blue wreaths from his pipe" (SIGN). Although, he wasn't above a few a few "blue smoke rings" which he watches "as they chased each other up to the ceiling" (FIVE). Certainly the effect of smoking calmed Holmes, too, as "he leaned back in his chair, with the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of infinite languor in his face" (IDEN). Even when under the weather, his thought was for the pipe as he asked Watson to "put my pipe on the table - and the tobacco-slipper (ILLU).

Fireplace Tongs

Did Holmes use a conventional means to light his cigar? Well, for the times, it was conventional although somewhat hard on his pipes; for he used fireplace tongs to light his pipe with a "glowing cinder" (COPP).

Dear Watson also did his share of darkening 221B with smoke from his Arcadia and ship's tobacco. He, too, had his morning pipe (CHAR) and an evening pipe (THOR); but he also regularly smoked his pipe throughout the day as evidenced by his smoking "a last pipe" after a long day in CROO.

There is evidence in YELL that Watson may have only had one pipe for Holmes says, "Halloa! that's not your pipe on the table!" instead of "one of your pipes." Although, perhaps Holmes was referring to a resemblance between the pipe on the table and a specific pipe of Watson's, which seems more likely given that Watson also smoked quite a bit and, therefore, would necessarily need more than 1 or 2 pipes. Descriptions of these pipes, however, are not forthcoming. Yet, we can conjecture that he owned at least a briarwood and a clay, given their popularity. He might have also had a corncob in his earlier years and invested in a meerschaum when firmly established in his practice and doing well for himself.

Please note: Tobacco use carries significant risks to develop various cancers, strokes, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

For more information (and more in-depth) pipe anatomy, see Pipe Anatomy or Anatomy of a Pipe, or the Basic Primer on Shape Components.