A Clever Story

 My wife thought yesterday's post about my Dunhill pipe was a clever story.  I told her the previous owner is probably from California and works in the tech industry.  He decided to give up pipe smoking and is still alive.  But that's the way it is with an estate pipe.  One just doesn't know.  One can go into most any pipe shop today and there will be a bowl full of estate pipes each selling for about $15.  One just never knows.  I bought my Gettysburg pipe in an old antique shop and they had this pipe for $30.

So, I made up my own story about it as I did my Dunhill yesterday.  One just doesn't know.  But my wife thought my story was clever.  But that's the way it is with an old estate pipe.  My Dunhill might increase in value if I take good care of it, which I have.  But a $15 estate pipe could last another lifetime.  That's the way it is with pipes.  I had a professor friend give me a Ben Wade pipe that I no longer smoke because it is on the verge of burning out, but it still looks good being in my collection.

But I pictured him smoking it and often wondered about his thoughts and conversations whike he smoked that pipe.  Ben Wade pipes aren't as favored by collectors as they used to be, but an old unsmoked Ben Wade is still valuable, just not as much as they used to be.  My Ben Wade can still be smoked, but it doesn't have much life left in it.  My Dunhill can be passed to the next generation with no problems whatsoever.

I'm not sure what has happened to the pipe collections of Mark Twain, Albert Einstein, C. S. Lewis, or Tolkien.  Some might be museum pieces, and like Einstein's violin, we just don't know.  Briar ages and does dry out and cracks over the span of many years.  Most any pipe lasts a lifetime, but beyond that one just doesn't know.  

Sure, it was a clever story I made up about my Dunhill, but at least plausible.  So would be a story if it belonged to a California tech guru who simply decided to give up pipe smoking.  I wouldn't be surprised if a pipe or two owned by Einstein ended up in an estate jar in a pipe shop and sold for $10, just because no one knew.  One just doesn't know.  There's nothing special about me that would make a pipe I owned valuable.  They too would just end up for sale as ordinary pipes.  

But I had fun writung my story about my Dunhill.  And that's all it was.  I made up a story as I did with my Gettysburg pipe.  I have no idea.  Maybe the previous owner wasn't even from the US.  I just don't know.  Maybe he was a professor from some small Midwest college!  He had some wealth to have owned it.  My family went together to buy it for me as a used pipe!  Maybe I'm the third or even fourth owner of it!  Today it is my Nording Number 2 pipe with some Old Professor tobacco.  My coffee this morning is a generic organic Gualtamalan ground coffee.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave