On Wednesday night, some hundreds of people gazed with 

 wonder on the magnificent collection of pipes of all nations, 

 collected during many years by Mr. Wm. Bragge, F.S.A., 

 the Master Cutler of Sheffield, and most kindly lent to the 

 most important institute of his native town. From the 

 wilds of Russia., the forests of South America, the dykes of 

 Holland, the prairies of America, the valleys of Germany 

 and France, the coasts of Africa, Mr. Bragge has for twenty 

 years collected every possible pipe. Whenever a traveller 

 returns, like Catlin, or Petherick, or Burton, or Speke, or 

 Grant, he is cross-examined at once on pipes, and all he can 

 or will spare are secured, to be added to the vast collection 

 of more than five thousand pipes — representing every age 

 and every people in the world. 



A sketch — even a sketch — of the contents of this marvel- 

 lous museum of human tastes and industry and art, open this 

 week only, may not only amuse but interest our readers, as 

 well as those who have the greater pleasure of examining 

 the curiosities themselves. Only a sketch at most can be 

 given, for anything like a full description, in common justice 

 to the extraordinary collection, would require a volume of 

 very handsome size. 



The early English pipes, extending in date from 1 600 to 

 1750, have been collected from Dr. Thursfield's and other 

 stores for many years. They include the rare varieties which 

 have names and dates and marks, small in bowl, as tobacco 

 was rare and dear, and increasing in size to a comely 

 "gauntlet" pipe, as the divine weed became more commonly 

 known. Compared with these scores of examples, the early 

 Dutch pipes contest for priority, and the Pipemakers' Guilds 

 of Holland, and the private researches of Mr. Bragge have 

 collected an extraordinary mass. Here nearly all the stems 

 are broken, but there are three early Dutch pipes, perfect 

 and complete, so rare that no others are known; and 

 while one of these was purchased, one was given and one 

 bequeathed. Here too, are elaborately carved pipe-cases, in 

 wood and ivory, inlaid with metal, coloured, and gilt, in ivory 

 and lac, to contain the pipes, which once a year only, were 

 taken by the Dutch traders into jealous Japan. Here, too, 

 are early English snuff-mills, from 1607 downwards, when 



