What type of pipe (name and materials used to construct) did Sherlock Holmes prefer?

Answer 1

As a pipe man myself, I believe Sherlock's favorite pipe was a Calabash. These were made from an "S" shaped goard with most commonly a yellow skin, a tapering curved stem to a "trumpet" bowl, and lined with meerschaum (which I'm sure I've spelled incorrectly!). The mouthpieces were initially made of ebony, or amber, I think, but later that was replaced with Bakelite or similar materials as one finds on modern pipes now. Amber in particular was the classic stem for meerschaum pipes, which were are somewhat fragile, and expensive unless moulded from the dust from carving the solid ones. They commonly had the bowl carved into a head (my own has the head of a turbaned Arab). Calabashes, like the long clay "pipewardens, and the genuine carved meershaums (compressed seafoam-stone found in Russia and Afghanistan, and now rare) were rarely smoked outdoors, so Sherlock also seems to have favoured a similarly shaped smaller curved-stem pipe of briar root (of which I still have one) still available from the best pipe-makers. They have the same form as a calabash, with a large bowl tapering in an "S" shape to the stem and mouthpiece. Large bowls and long stems make the smoke cooler, but workmen tended to use short pipes of briar root or clay that could be stored easily in pockets (clay pipes were cheap and often given away free in taverns etc). It used to said there were only two things a man wouldn't share - his wife and his pipe. Pipes, and their tobacco when mixed for particular customers by specialist tobacconists, had a "mystique" no factory cigarette ever had, not even Balkan Sobranies, although good cigars had a similar esoteric ethos of their own! All gone ...

Answer 2

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What type of pipe (name and materials used to construct) did Sherlock Holmes prefer?

Answer 3

It is now generally accepted that Holmes smoked almost exclusively a meerschaum pipe- a pipe with a bowl made out of merschaum ( a type of mineral) and distinguished by its curving design. This is incorrect as Holmes possessed a wide variety of pipes, many with a specific purpose and place in his meditations. The detective had a litter of pipes scattered over the mantlepiece in his bedroom ("The Dying Detective"), while others were stored in the coal scuttle where he alse kept his cigars ("The Mazarin Stone"). Arguably Holmes's most important pipe was his "old black pipe" ("The Creeping Man"), said by Watson to be an institution in the detective's life. This "old and oily" pipe ("A Case of Identity") was kept with other pipes in a rack and served him as a "counselor." It was described also as a black clay pipe ("The Blue Carbuncle," "The Copper Beeches). Holmes also smoked a cherrywood, a briar, and a pipe with an amber stem. The cherrywood replaced the clay pipe when the detective's mood was disputations rather than meditative ("The Copper Beeches"). The briar, seen als in "The Sign of Four", was used in "The Man With the Twisted Lip." These were, however, essentially straight pipes, the shapes confirmed by the early illustrations in the Strand by Sidney Paget. A radical change in the shape of the pipes began in 1899 in William Gillette's play "Sherlock Holmes." The actor portrayed Holmes smoking a large, curved pipe. Gillette found that he had an easier time with a curved meershaum as he could clamp it between his teeth and still deliver his lines. This incorrect image soon stuck in the majority of films and plays about the famed detective.

Answer 4

He used different pipes as it is described in the stories like a Bruyere or a Meerschaum. To find out more you should read the book "TOBACCO TALK IN BAKER STREET - A PIPE OF TOBACCO and STORM P., PIPES AND SHERLOCK HOLMES (Paperback) by Robert Storm and la Cour, Tage Peterson (Author)

Answer 5

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Sherlock, James Bond is too much of a womanizer.

Answer 6

I'm pretty sure it was a Meerschaum pipe. Meerschaum is a kind of a mineral deposit and is made of hydrous magnesium silicate.

Answer 7

Meerschaum

Answer 8

I'm pretty sure it was a meerschaum. The white material which is either ivory or something close to it.

Answer 9

i don't believe it was specified, the pipe you see used commonly was first used as it was the only one that the actor could clench between his teeth and speak and other productions followed

Answer 10

This is an interesting question, and one that intrigued me for a very long time.