The North American Society of Pipe Collectors show was Saturday. As always, my lady, the wife and I had a good time, met some old friends and made some new ones.
Unfortunatly, my camera went belly up somewhere on the way to Columbus, so, no photos.
The show was held at the Ramada Inn at I-71 and Morse Rd. It had about 200 tables in the conference room. I didn't see some of the vendors that have attended before but there was some new faces and things to see. We had eight or ten carvers there, showing some very unique styles and some wonderfully executed classic pipe styles.
The usual tobbaco vendors were there. Cornell & Diel, McClellands, G. L. Pease and others. I don't usually smoke a lot of different tobbacos. I've been smoking an aromatic house blend called Sea Breeze for over 14 years. But, I picked up some aromatics from Cornell & Diell: Apricots and Cream, Black Satin, Milk & Honey and Stawberry Cavendish. Simply because they smelled so good. We won a tin of G. L. Pease's Maltese Falcon, very tasty, in the raffle.
And the collectors were there, in droves. If it pertains to pipe smoking, someone was there that collected it. When was the last time you saw unopend Prince Albert, in the red can, for sale? My friend, Steve Ritchey, was estatic over a tin of Black Sail tobbaco, that he found. He said it hadn't been made in 20 years. After ageing for 20 years, it should be very mellow.
And the pipes, the pipes, big ones, bent ones, straight ones, miniature ones, blond ones, brown ones, black ones, white ones. There was a couple of pipes there. Strangely enough, not many meerschaums. I noticed 'cause I like "sea foam" pipes. I did find a very handy calabash pipe on an estate table that managed to come home with me.
All in all, it was a good time. I didn't sell enough to make the rent on the table, but it was money well spent. I think the no smoking venue cut the attendance as did gas prices and the state of the economy.
DaninDayton
ilurkalot