Famous Pipe Smokers: Sherlock HolmesWhat with the new movie out, I think it was time for our "famous pipe smoker" to be the original "world's greatest detective" (though I always thought Batman OUGHT to smoke a pipe too).
This is the image we think of with Sherlock Holmes:
And it was mainly inspired by this guy:
Basil Rathbone, the definitive Sherlock Holmes actor and a real-life famous pipe smoker as well.
Anyways, Sherlock Holmes was mostly famous for being a pipe smoker, but there is a great amount of ignorance as to which pipes he really smoked. Many people assume, because some later actors often showed him as such, that Holmes smoked one of those big Calabash pipes. In fact, Holmes NEVER smoked one of those, in the original novels.
His favorite pipe appeared to be a plain clay pipe, the sort that someone without very much money or without very much care might have smoked back in the 19th century. He also owned a cherrywood and a few briarwood pipes. The cherrywood was apparently what he smoked when he was feeling cantankerous.
Holmes smoked plain black shag for tobacco, in contrast to Watson who smoked a much more sophisticated blend called Arcadia.
Now, all of this means something. Back in the 19th century it would all have been a kind of secret code, that most gentlemen and pipe smokers (and the two were one and the same, really) could have understood.
Let me explain: anytime prior to World War I, the British Upper Classes would have primarily smoked Meerschaum pipes (a Calabash, for example, is part Meerschaum). These were very fine pipes, imported from turkey, and quite expensive. Also, without out a doubt the best quality smoke there was. Their tobacco would have been bought from places like Fox & Sons, and other high class stores, with special blends using a mixture of imported tobaccos.
The lower classes, on the other hand, smoked wooden pipes. Briars are today made with very sophisticated measures and you can can have very fine (and expensive!) briar pipes, but back then this wasn't so. Dunhill was the first person to make Briar pipes into something high quality that a gentleman could smoke, and that wouldn't be until decades later.
So all of this said to the reader a number of things:
-Holmes was very "bohemian"
-Holmes may not actually have been of good breeding
-Holmes was not someone who took great care to maximize the smoking experience; in the stories they also mention that he rarely cleaned his pipes, and that he stuffed his tobacco in a slipper; this would have made the tobacco smoke very hot and dry, burning fast, and combined with the un-clean pipes would have made his smoke stink to high heaven.
In short, Holmes has been utterly over-rated as a pipe smoker, ever since certain actors started to use the much more gentlemanly Calabash. Its all a whitewash, and Sherlock Holmes may have been many things, but he was certainly not the World's Greatest Pipe Smoker.
I haven't seen the new movie yet. I don't know if Downey Jr.'s Holmes smokes a pipe or not. I certainly hope so, though I fear the politically correct thought-police may have revised even that. But if he does smoke a pipe, I hope they show him smoking in the rough and careless way that he does in the novels.
RPGPundit
Currently Smoking: Masonic Meerschaum + Altadis' Byzantium
Comments (6)
I don't smoke myself, but I like reading your history on pipes and all the different types of tobacco that you discuss. I'm from the South and lived in Kentucky quite a few years before moving out so in that state that there are only two crops that farmers grow--tobacco and whatever else.
Speaking of the movie, I saw a screen shot and Downey's character did have the corn-cob pipe you described. Whether it was in the movie or made it to a scene, I'm not sure as I haven't seen the movie myself either.
This incarnation of Holmes uses a "black sandblast saddle-bit Billiard" throughout the movie, lighting and puffing several times with charming carelessness.
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The movie is entertaining as long as you are not expecting any resemblance to the books other than the iconic traits, the period and of course the location (think fist-fight action comedy in Victorian London ala Da Vinci Code). Also, Downey Jr. can surely act but his accent is simply atrocious, thank god they didn't resort to famous lines ("Elementary..." or "When you have eliminated the impossible..."); the delivery would have been appalling. And yes, there is a slight homoerotic vibe between Sherlock and John disguised as a "roomates bromance" played for comedic effect, but again, if you've seen the trailer (which includes a naked Holmes and plenty of action takes), you pretty much know what to expect (a pop-corn fun movie with some easter eggs for Doyle fans).
Nice billiard; and in keeping more or less with what a cheap-pipe of that era might have been like. Awesome article, too.
Without a doubt, Holmes was far too preoccupied for the nuances of cleaning pipes either frequently or infrequently however, with that observation, little room for doubt exists that extra Latakia would be the order of the day, on par with McClelland's Bombay Extra. The dimensions far exceed calculable expectations. Indeed!
He was also a cigar smoker. Based on his pipe habits I wonder what he would have had on hand for his humidor? Or what his humidor would have been?
Probably very cheap cigars.