Has Anyone Ever Heard of an Emperor Norton Pipe?

[Yerbabuena68]

EDIT: Fixed Capitalization in Title (See Rule 9) - Bob

I recently purchased an antique briar pipe from a collector in Quebec that has Emperor Norton engraved on the shank. Sadly, the seller could not provide me with any information about its provenance. I was wondering if anyone has ever seen or heard of one like this. Emperor Norton's most famous biographer stated that he wasn't known to be a smoker. But there's a photo engraving of a lost painting of Emperor Norton smoking a pipe out of uniform that was painted by Virgil Williams that once hung in the Bohemian Club in San Francisco but was destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake and fire. I am guessing that it is most likely a souvenir that may have been sold soon after the passing of Emperor Norton, but honestly, I don't know. I cannot seem to find this pipe in any of the pipe encyclopedias.

 

[lestrout]

Yo Yerb - before Grant's on Market St closed (SanFran) they had a full English blend named after Emperor Norton. Grant's sold pipes with the shop's name on them, and some of them were supplied from the likes of Comoy. Maybe your pipe is from them.

hp
les

 

[anotherbob]

either way that's awesome. Emperor Norton was a truly glorious eccentric. Though I have seen more then a few pipes with his visage carved into them including meer. Seems like that was a really common practice to make a pipe with a person of notes' image. Though some of the ones I've seen I wonder if the carving wasn't too accurate or if it's mislabeled too.

 

[Yerbabuena68]

 

[mikethompson]

No way that I am the only one who didn't know who Emperor Norton was.

Wikipedia link

 

[kcghost]

I sure hadn't heard of him and after reading his bio I can see why.

 

[mso489]

If I may say so, no nation brings forth more spectacular eccentrics than England, and no city attracts them more strongly than San Francisco, so this comprises the perfect storm of delusions of grandeur gone wild. He certainly had the get-ups to prove it. Great cities produce and cultivate great eccentrics. I think I'm eccentric. Huh!

 

[anotherbob]

No way that I am the only one who didn't know who Emperor Norton was.

Wikipedia link

And I imagine there are a few here who consider him a saint. There is a strange cross over between pipes and Saint Norton fans in the weirdossphere.

 

[dmcmtk]

Any markings on the other side of the pipe?

 

[Yerbabuena68]

Any markings on the other side of the pipe?

sadly, no.

 

[Yerbabuena68]

Emperor Norton at Ease | The Emperor Norton Trust

One of the most arresting and enigmatic images of Emperor Norton is an 1870s watercolor of him — in street clothes and smoking a pipe — that hung for more than 30 years in the library of the Bohemian Club, in San Francisco. No doubt known by the Emperor h

emperornortontrust.org