‘The Pipe Man’ collection – put together over 50 years - comes to auction
17 September 2020 A group of pipes and smoking accoutrements put together by collector Trevor Barton (1920-2008) are to be offered at auction this autumn.
A Prattware coiled pipe, elaborately coiled and painted in ochre and blue dashes c. 1820 estimated at £400-600.
The Hertfordshire collector was known in the antiques trade as ‘The Pipe Man’ and began buying in 1947.
He was part of the Academie Internationale de la Pipe (the collecting association formed in 1984).
His son (also called Trevor) said: “Dad was a true collector. One day he bought an antique pipe on a London street market. Within a few weeks he had ten, then 20. The collection then just kept growing for the next 50 years.”
His hero was William Bragge, a 19th century master cutler from Sheffield, who amassed a collection of over 7000 pipes and accessories that were dispersed in the 1880s (many went to the British Museum). After a chance meeting with Bragge’s grand-daughter, Barton bought some of his notebooks and drawings and in 1991 published the hardback catalogue A Portfolio of William Bragge and his Pipes of all Peoples.
Copies of the book are included in the sale.
The collection also includes many English pipes and tobacco-related items from the Georgian and Victorian era.
Selected items from the Barton collection were sold at Christie’s in 2010, but the remainder were kept by the family. They will now be offered at auction house Sworders across a number of sales.
Part I of the collection will form part of Sworders’ Fine Interiors auction on September 22-23.
Part II will be sold within Sworders’ Timed Homes & Interiors auction (October 9-18) and Part III (Chinese and Japanese pipes) will form part of Sworders’ Asian art auction on November 6.
Among the items to be offered are:
An early 18th century Japanese lacquer double clay pipe case, similar to another in the Rijksmuseum Collection, Amsterdam. With an estimate of £2000-3000, view and bid for this Japanese pipe case via thesaleroom.com.
An early 18th century Japanese lacquer double clay pipe case, similar to another in the Rijksmuseum Collection, Amsterdam. With an estimate of £2000-3000.
A mammoth ivory pipe made by the Samoyed people of East Siberia, with an estimate £2000-3000. View and bid for this mammoth ivory pipe via thesaleroom.com.
A mammoth ivory pipe made by the Samoyed people of East Siberia, with an estimate £2000-3000.
A Prattware coiled pipe, elaborately coiled and painted in ochre and blue dashes c.1820 estimated at £400-600. View and bid for this coiled pipe via thesaleroom.com.
A Prattware coiled pipe, elaborately coiled and painted in ochre and blue dashes c. 1820 estimated at £400-600.
