I had a pre war one I gave to Dave and Hawke gave me a great one in the shape of a clay pipe which I smoke frequently because it is just a wonderful and thoughtful gift from a great guy. I think the ones you guys are talking about are the ones made from delphi or slip ware with scenes of wind mills and such like?
All ceramic pipes are not created equal. Some of them are fine for smoking, but thousands of them were made as tourist collectibles and aren't worth much for actual smoking.
The double walled ones are quite decent smokers, that keep no ghost of past tobaccos, the single walled ones however, do smoke hotter than the gates of hell and really just for show.