Collecting Antique Meerschaum Pipes: Miniature to Majestic Sculpture (A Schiffer Book for Collectors) [Hardcover]

Ben Rapaport (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Schiffer Book for Collectors | Publication Date: March 1999

Collecting Antique Meerschaum Pipes: Miniature to Majestic Sculpture, 1850-1925 is an illustrated guide to the smoking utensils made of a mineral that has been used since at least the early 1700s and which is, today, still a popular material. In the last decade, a surge in interest in tobacco collectibles has already spawned many books on cigarette lighters, cigar-box labels, and snuff boxes and bottles. This book now comes at a time when antique meerschaums are taking center stage, and collecting them is like buying blue-chip stocks. Ben Rapaport is one of the few internationally recognized authorities on the subject of antique pipes, and in this, his second book published by Schiffer, he has created a powerful and convincing tour de force in word and picture that evidences why so many pipe collectors have a fervent passion for these exceptional works of art. Ranging from very diminutive and expressive cigarette holders to massive sculptured pipes, these instruments were produced by many talented, skilled, and unknown craftsmen working in a cottage industry trade 150 years ago. The caliber of their handiwork and the myriad imaginative meerschaums they produced cannot be duplicated anywhere in the world today. Now, this volume is a permanent record of their unrivaled genius.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ben Rapaport, a Virginia resident, retired U.S. Army career officer, and currently working as a systems integrator for a high-tech defense firm, has been collecting antique pipes for 40 years. Although his collection includes examples from around the globe, he has a special fondness for pipes, cheroot holders, and cigarette holders of meerschaum made in the last half of the 19th century to early in the 20th century. He is the author of four books on collecting tobacciana and has co-authored several other works on related tobacciana subjects. He was initiated into the Pipe Smoker's Hall of Fame in 1973, elected as the U.S. founding member of the International Academy of the Pipe in 1985, and inducted as a Confrre Pipier of the Confrrie des Matres Pipiers de Saint-Claude in 1991. He regularly writes for art journals and tobacco trade magazines about the lure and lore of tobacco collectibles. He believes that this latest written contribution to the collecting world will visibly-and unquestionably-show why he and so many other enthusiasts collect antique meerschaums.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Schiffer Pub Ltd; First edition (March 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764307657
• ISBN-13: 978-0764307652
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,061,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must read" book for pipe collectors., March 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Collecting Antique Meerschaum Pipes: Miniature to Majestic Sculpture (A Schiffer Book for Collectors) (Hardcover)

As a collector and admirer of meerschaum pipes, this is the book I've been waiting for. The author, Ben Rapaport, is well known among antique pipe fanciers for his earlier works, including the standard work, Complete Guide to Collecting Antique Pipes (which discusses all types of antique pipes not just meerschaums, published in 1979 and recently reprinted) and the lovely and informative Museum of Tobacco Art and History Guidebook (1996). But his newly published book, Collecting Antique Meerschaum Pipes, is in a class by itself. Although Rapaport is the leading authority in this area, he primarily lets the pipes do the talking. Of the 176 pages, the first 50 contain the scholarly background which addresses the questions of how, who, why and where these pipes were created. But even in this section at least half of the pages are dedicated to wonderful photographs of pipes, old catalogs, craftsmen and workshops. The remainder of the book is an absolutely gorgeous album of some of the most beautiful and extraordinary meerschaum pipes ever sculpted. The photographs are large so that one may see the exquisite detail, and where appropriate the reader is provided with additional particularly detailed pictures. The photography is of exceptional quality, as one would expect to find in a first-rate art book. At the end of the book the author provides a compilation of the 19th and early 20th century manufacturers and sellers of these pipes organized by country and city, and an international listing of museums and shops where one might view some of these treasures today. It is hard to imagine that anyone other than Ben Rapaport could have created a book like this. The book brings together his many years of experience as an author and collector. But just as importantly he is known and respected by the many collectors who were willing to provide him with their pipes for inclusion in this collection. If you collect pipes, if you enjoy viewing small sculptures, if you are a fan of "working art," if you want to take a look into a small and not particularly well known world of master artists and craftsman of the late 19th and early 20th century then you owe it to yourself to buy this sumptuous book.