Sherlock Holmes and other Well Known Pipe Smokers

AAdomeit · Post by **AAdomeit** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 11:02 pm

...What pipes did they smoke? I think Holmes smoked a calabash meershaum, but the others are beyond me:

Holmes:
Einstein:
Twain:
Watson:

And so on. This is purely for entertainment, of course.

RadDavis · Post by **RadDavis** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 12:33 am

Actually, I've read somewhere that Holmes never smoked a gourd calabash, which of course everybody in the world calls a "Sherlock Holmes style" pipe.

I could be wrong.....

Mark Twain has a Peterson named after him, so I think he must have smoked them. I think he also smoked cobs.

Rad

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 12:35 am

Don't forget my boy, JRR Tolkien

Now let's see Einstein. This is his real pipe at the smithsonian:

Twain looks like he liked a Gourd Calabash. I think that Sherlock did too (or maybe it was meershum?):

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 12:39 am

a better one of Tolkien. Clearly a straight billiard:

AAdomeit · Post by **AAdomeit** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 3:40 am

Well, the Sherlock Holmes Museum (221b Baker St., London, incidentally) has "his" calabash...as well as a couple of others. I don't know how to post pictures here, but they've got them.

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/s ... revhp.html (Mark Twain/Samuel Clements - he also was a cigar smoker)

Holmes Museum Store: https://www.ssl1.fptoday.com/sherlock-h ... view1.html

marks · Post by **marks** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 7:21 am

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never wrote a calabash into the stories of Holmes. The calabash was popularized by William Gillette, an actor of the day who portrayed Holmes in the theater.

Holmes smoked a varitey of pipes, including briar and cherrywood, but his go to pipe was his old and oily clay.

Other famous pipe smokers and their pipes (where I think I know), not already mentioned
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Herman Melville (meerschaum, and probably others)
President Gerald Ford
Jerry Lee Lewis (he likes various type pipes)
Bing Crosby (straight, slender billiard is what he is famous for)
Sir Walter Raleigh (clay)
Mr. Wilson (from Dennis the Menace - usually a bent billiard)
Norman Rockwell (straight billiard is what I've seen mostly)
Santa Claus (clay, bent billiards)
Frosty the Snowman (corncob)
Popeye (jack of all trades pipe)
General Douglas McArthur (most commonly pictured with the corncob)

Also, while Twain smoked a lot of pipes, including Peterson's, he would buy corncobs by the dozen.

JMB · Post by **JMB** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 10:03 am

marks wrote:
"Jerry Lee Lewis (he likes various type pipes) "

Didn't know that. Wonder what he "smokes" in them.

lannjohn · Post by **lannjohn** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 5:52 pm

Jerry Lee gets his tobacco from a pipeshop in Memphis and has smoked in for years. I don't remember the name of the tobacco though.
There was a write up about Jerry Lee some years ago in P&T magazine.
Happy puffing,
Lannes

JMB · Post by **JMB** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 6:29 pm

"Jerry Lee gets his tobacco from a pipeshop in Memphis"

Hum, I get one of mine online out Memphis. Have to check it out.

marks · Post by **marks** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 10:01 pm

Haven't been able to post in a few days.

The P&T article states that Jerry Lee Lewis smokes Union Avenue Blend from Tobacco Corner in Memphis. The P&T article on Jerry was in the Fall 1999 issue.

JMB · Post by **JMB** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 11:27 pm

Thanks marks,
I'll do some checking. That's not my shop but would like to check out his Blend.
JMB

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 1:13 am

I swear I once saw a pic of Stevie Ray Vaughn smoking a pipe.

*googleing*

Rats. Can't find it now.

achduliebe · Post by **achduliebe** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 9:00 am

Kurt,

If you find this pic, please forward it to me. I would love to see it. I am a ginormous SRV fan!

achduliebe · Post by **achduliebe** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 9:56 am

Here we go, SRV with a pipe from live in Japan in 1985.

http://www.geetarz.org/reviews/srv/live ... an-vcd.htm

go to the bottom of the page, the next to the last picture he has a pipe in his mouth.

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 10:52 pm

achduliebe wrote:Here we go, SRV with a pipe from live in Japan in 1985.

http://www.geetarz.org/reviews/srv/live ... an-vcd.htm

Is it just me, or does that really look like a GBD Rhodesian? The pic I saw of him he was smoking smothing that looked like a Petersen system bent. If I recall, Terry Davey had the pic I'm speaking of up on his site. I'll ask him if he still has it around.

RadDavis · Post by **RadDavis** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:07 am

From that pic, I can't even tell if it's a rhodesian, much less whether it's a GBD!

Rad

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 2:48 pm

RadDavis wrote:From that pic, I can't even tell if it's a rhodesian, much less whether it's a GBD!

Rad

I collect GBD rhodesians, so the shape rings like a bell for me.