The following lots are a selection of pipes from the collection of the late J. Trevor Barton, 1920-2008. Having served in the British Army in the second World War his career was spent in sales and marketing of industrial goods. He began collecting antique smoking pipes and tobacco-related items in 1947, when he purchased two Tyrolean pipes with porcelain bowls. The collection was assembled over some 55 years. He obtained some items abroad when travelling, but much of the collection was bought in the United Kingdom. A regular early morning visitor to the Bermondsey and Portobello street markets, he was known by many of the market traders as "The Pipe Man". He became a Member of the "Academie Internationale de la Pipe" and was highly respected as an authority in his field. He had a wide circle of friends in the collecting world. THE AMERICAN INDIAN PIPE. In Plains culture pipes took on a ritual and religious importance and are steeped in cultural significance. Collectors can not only enjoy the aesthetic appeal but buy something with a direct link to the American Indian past. Pipes and tobacco were used for medicinal purposes and smoking was used to counter hunger and thirst and to focus the smoker intellectually and spiritually. Pipes were also utilized as objects of exchange, creating alliances for peace, trade and war. Some pipes were occasionally used in the torture and execution of enemies, while others were utilized for personal cleansing and recreation.

A SIOUX PLAINS-INDIAN CATLINITE PIPE

NORTH AMERICA

Details

A SIOUX PLAINS-INDIAN CATLINITE PIPE
NORTH AMERICA
In two sections with carved reeded girdles
21¾ in. (55.5 cm.) long

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Lot Essay

Believed to have once been owned by Chief Sitting Bull d.1890. The pipe is said to have been acquired by the Victorian actor Henry Irving. There is some evidence to support this in that in a letter to Bram Stoker from Thomas Donaldson dated the 5th January 1885, in the Stoker archive in the Brotherton Library, Leeds, Donaldson complains that Irving has not acknowledged his gift of an "Indian pipe", sent to Pittsburg. Irving's company spent Christmas week 1884 in Pittsburg.

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