The Birth of La Bruyère

 

(Ben Rapaport via Smoking Jacket) The briar pipe is, without question, the most popular pipe ever, and the one whose origin is the least understood. Mind if I offer my views on the origin of this species? As you read, you’ll readily see that it’s all very perplexing and entangled because of a very wide spectrum of views and opinions. The briar’s evolution is dubious, and my research illustrates that the written history of this pipe, more than the written record regarding any other pipe, is rife with paradoxes, contradictions, and outright exaggerations. Continued