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.