American Patent Smoking Pipe Company - New York 1867

Beautiful RARE certificate from the American Patent Smoking Pipe Company issued in 1867. This historic document was printed by Martin & Fullerton Company and has an ornate border around it with vignettes of an old street scene with carriages, and of an indian. This item has the signatures of the Company's President and Secretary and is over 140 years old. This is the first time we have had this certificate for sale.


Certificate Vignette

A smoking pipe for tobacco smoking typically consists of a small chamber (the bowl) for the combustion of the tobacco to be smoked and a thin stem (shank) that ends in a mouthpiece (the bit). Pipes can range from the very simple machine-made briar pipe to highly-prized handmade and artful implements created by renowned pipemakers which are often very expensive collector's items.

The bowls of tobacco pipes are commonly made of briar, corncob, meerschaum, and clay. Less common are cherrywood, olivewood, maple, mesquite, and oak. Generally a dense-grained wood is ideal. Minerals such as catlinite and soapstone have also been used. Pipe bowls of all these materials are sometimes carved with a great deal of artistry.

Unusual, but still noteworthy pipe bowl materials include gourds, as in the famous calabash pipe, and pyrolytic graphite.[1] Metal and glass are uncommon materials for tobacco pipes, but are common for pipes intended for other substances.

The stem needs a long channel of constant position and diameter running through it, and this is difficult to carve out of a pre-existing block. Because it is molded rather than carved, clay may make up the entire pipe or just the bowl, but most other materials have stems made separately and detachable. Stems and bits of tobacco pipes are usually made of moldable materials like vulcanite, lucite, Bakelite, and soft plastic. Less common are stems made of reeds, bamboo, or hollowed out pieces of wood. Expensive pipes once had stems made of amber, though this is rare now.

Tobaccos for smoking in pipes are often carefully treated and blended to achieve flavour nuances not available in other tobacco products. Many of these are blends using staple ingredients of variously cured Burley and Virginia tobaccos which are enhanced by spice tobaccos, among them many Oriental or Balkan varietals, Latakia (a fire-cured spice tobacco of Cypriot or Syrian origin), Perique (uniquely grown in St. James Parish, Louisiana) or blends of Virginia and Burley tobaccos of African, Indian, or South American origins. Traditionally, many U.S. blends are made of American Burley with sweeteners and flavorings added to create an "aromatic" flavor, whereas "English" blends are based on natural Virginia tobaccos enhanced with Oriental and other natural tobaccos. There is a growing tendency towards "natural" tobaccos which derive their aromas from artful blending with selected spice tobaccos only and careful, often historically-based, curing processes.

Pipes have been used since ancient times. Herodotus described Scythians inhaling the fumes of burning leaves in 500 B.C.E. Romans, and Greeks adopted pipes from their neighbors to the east and they were subsequently used by Germanic, Celtic and Nordic tribes.

As tobacco was not introduced to the Old World until the 16th century, the pipes outside of the Americas were usually used to smoke hashish, a rare and expensive substance outside areas of the Middle East, Central Asia and India where it was produced.

Native Americans smoked tobacco in pipes long before the arrival of Europeans. Tobacco was introduced to Europe from the Americas in the 16th century and spread around the world rapidly.

History from Wikipedia and OldCompanyResearch.com.