Smokiana: Historical & Ethnographical.

London, 1890. Largish octavo publisher's cloth blocked in gilt and black; 102pp. Entirely lithographed from hand written text with each page of text facing a plate, most of which are colour. New endpapers, quite a good copy. With such a charming book I had no expectations of documentary accuracy but even so I was taken aback by an Australian emu leg pipe. It is re-assuring to find that the author 'in vain' sought a native pipe and offers the eccentric and somewhat gruesome example as probably being of Chinese or Malay making. The book is an ethnographic survey of smoking pipes and apparatus, including an opium outfit. The author's unbiased study led him to believe that opium was maligned and that moderate use was a health benefit to Chinese workers. Before turning to art, travel and collecting in the 1860s Pritchett had been a gunmaker, proving yet again that smoking and violent destruction go hand in hand.