Tobacco pipes created out of briar came from France around the late Eighteen hundreds and were responsible for the large rise in pipe smoking. Meanwhile, with the industrial revolution in full swing, pipe production passed from individual hand made pipes to machines which could easily manufacture them in huge volumes. Pipe businesses began to get bigger and mass production procedures meant they were able to turn out pipes in considerable numbers.
Throughout the 50's and 60's pipe smoking was popular and pipe smokers could be seen in every street, in the movies, on the telly and in magazines. To be able to enjoy a quick smoke using a ciggie, their attraction grew creating a steep decline in pipe smokers from the Seventies.
During the late 1960's smoking pipe shapes saw a shift from the traditional billiard and Dublin shapes on the one extreme to wild freehand creations on the other. Freehand design pipes began to be offered by independent pipe artisans, with Danish makers leading the way. The rest of the pipe smokers, specially in the United states of america, started to appreciate the inventive work of these new generation craftsmen, and their popularity grew.
Within the time period from the Seventies into the early 2000's pipe smoking experienced a change of direction. Pipe smoking has transformed into much more of a interest instead of a way to supply nicotine into your body. Smokers began to appreciate the various tobaccos available, in the same way a wine drinker would opt for various kinds of wines. Together with the reduction in pipe smoking in the last Forty-five years, most of the bigger companies have combined together, together with declining demand from customers the quality of their merchandise has also fallen. Lots of the high quality handmade pipes in freehand designs started to appear in specialist pipe collections.
Yet throughout the early 21st century things have started to adjust once more. Pipe smoking looks to be increasing in popularity again with tobacco stores confirming an increase in sales. There is also a significant rise in sales made from the internet.
With more taxation on cigarettes, a large number of cigarette smokers are increasingly switching over to the pleasures of smoking a pipe. And a lot of cigar smokers are also moving over a result of the broad assortment of pipe tobaccos accessible.
Aided by the fall in quality of manufacturing by the bigger pipe manufacturing companies, this has created a void in the market which is being successfully filled by a numerous independent pipe craftsmen. Personal preferences in pipe shapes are also reverting back to the simpler timeless shapes from the pre-70's. There exists a gap in the marketplace between factory made classic shapes and the artisan versions thereof and various pipe carvers understand this situation and are creating for themselves a precious niche market.
