From the Editor: Trevor Barton was a British pipe collector that favored historical non-briar pipes, such as: native American, tribal, ceremonial, art pieces, porcelain, ivory, and meerschaum. He ammassed a huge collection of pipes, along with smoking ephemera such as tobacco boxes, carved wood pipe cases, books, and large tobacco advertising figures in carved wood.
Via Press Release: Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers are to disperse one of the world’s finest collections of pipes and smoking accoutrements across a number of sales this year. The Trevor Barton (1920-2008) collection represents more than 50 years of acquisition and study, by a Hertfordshire pipe collector known to many in the antiques trade as ‘The Pipe Man’.
Mr. Barton began collecting pipes and other tobacco-related items in 1947, shortly after he was demobbed (British for discharged from the military). His son (also Trevor) recalls life in a small Tudor cottage in Hertfordshire surrounded by hundreds of pipes and regular visits from other enthusiasts, including fellow members of the Academie Internationale de la Pipe (the collecting association formed in 1984). “Dad was a true collector. One day he bought an antique pipe on a London street market. Within a few weeks he had ten, then 20. The collection then just kept growing for the next 50 years.” His father would unfailingly rise before dawn every Friday to attend Bermondsey market and then Portobello on Saturdays – the stallholders all familiar with ‘The Pipe Man.’
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