La pipe en terre

the long version

This has to be the most comprehensive book on French Clay Pipes ever done and is essential to anyone needing to know about this important part of the industry. The french pipe makers were some of the most innovative and successful of all, creating the very best quality fancy pipes that could be imagined. They were world leaders and their work influenced the English market greatly in the late 19th and early 20th century especially. This book, by the well known French researcher Maurice, covers in superb detail all of the great French firms and explores the lives of the founders and their creations with a fondness that matches no other book I have yet seen. It's pages are packed with historical pictures, diagrams of the factories, maker's marks and patent pipe inventions, copies from catalogues and poetry on the subject.