Huge College "Class Pipe" Collection including Dunhills (Villanova Syracuse, Lehigh, etc.)

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Humblepipe

Lifer
Sep 13, 2019
1,787
6,243
Guerneville, CA
For the past 5 years or so I have assisting a very good friend of mine with the restoration of his class pipes. I did it without charge, because he is a great friend and because I saw him as, essentially, a curator of a museum of American History (as it relates to tobacciana). He is the author of the Pipedia page on class pipes and, from what I gather, likely has the largest collection of class pipes in the USA. For reasons I will not go into here, he has decided to sell off his collection of over 50 class pipes. The collection will go up for sale sometime before Christmas.

Around 1900 and slightly earlier, pipe smoking on college campuses, by faculty and students was an important rite of passage. From the 1890's through the 1950's, the pipe signified "big man on campus" status. Class pipes were also a keepsake for memorializing an important point of a young man's achievement of earning a college degree. Here are a few interesting class pipes from my friends collection...
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,623
44,833
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
I'd never heard of college class pipes before, sort of like class rings for pipe smokers. Personally, I wouldn't want a class pipe; it just isn't my way of remembering my college and grad school years. I was very much an independent, no fraternities for me, commuting to school the first two years, and always pretty wrapped up in the academics, not nose to the stone, but enraptured digging through the library stacks to "amaze" my professors.

Grad school I did on GI Bill, and was totally wrapped up in the community of my program, and those friendships and connections still remain, with no rings or pipes involved.
 

Humblepipe

Lifer
Sep 13, 2019
1,787
6,243
Guerneville, CA
I'd never heard of college class pipes before, sort of like class rings for pipe smokers. Personally, I wouldn't want a class pipe; it just isn't my way of remembering my college and grad school years. I was very much an independent, no fraternities for me, commuting to school the first two years, and always pretty wrapped up in the academics, not nose to the stone, but enraptured digging through the library stacks to "amaze" my professors.

Grad school I did on GI Bill, and was totally wrapped up in the community of my program, and those friendships and connections still remain, with no rings or pipes involved.

I also did Grad school on the GI bill!
 

Hillcrest

Lifer
Dec 3, 2021
2,640
12,779
Bagshot Row, Hobbiton
Wow ! Those are stunning ! Are class pipes still available from makers or can they be made by current manufacturers ? Or is the tradition lost unless done privately ? Just curious ...

Thank you for creating this thread !
 
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