Stopped in the carpark and found this plate there against the fence in the weeds, It had been driven over and there was a bunch of oil on it too, thought it would add to Micky next doors pile of brass that he sells on.
However, when I picked it up, I noted the picture on it.
Nicola has been collecting old smoking pipes of various vintages for some time now, since we went for a "romantic" walk on the Medway riverside one low tide.
Note her grubby paws tightly holding all the bits of clay pipe in a small bag that we had found in an hour of walking the shore.
Keep in mind, the Medway had a load of wooden hulled Prison Ships years ago, and many of these clay pipes were disposable "penny pipes"
Brass plate as found.
Straightened out, polished and now wrapped up for Christmas.... ;D
And there I was worrying that I did not know what to get her for Christmas.
Unfortunately many of these pipes are very fragile, and some get here via courier/postal service, broken. Which is a pity.
Yesterday she got a couple of rare, Order of the Buffalo cermonial pipes and one was broken in 2 places, problem is the money is not the issue here, its the fact that they are pretty much irreplaceable.
Today, this one which she had been looking for, for a long time came..... bad packaging, resulting in multiple breaks, so worthless in the investment market. I will try to fix is and the Order of the Buffalo pipe. Unfortunately the seller did not know what he had, did a BIN for £5.00 which Nicola grabbed, but his packing was atrocious.
Anyway, what do you have or collect that is slightly, or very "Left Field" ?
Worth a lot more before it was broken.
Some of the collection.
Also the tobacco jars and some other paraphanalia are part of her search, some Victorian ones like the blue on the top right shelf are worth a bit.
Last pic, the two ceremonial pipes. Nicola's favourite, the revolver , a traditional "Penny pipe" her dad found for her, a dope pipe my brother sent her and a Chinese pipe off Ebay.
Digestive biscuit just for size persective at about 85mm diameter.
Please feel free to add pics , comments and opinions of your own weird collections.
Oh, and if you have any old used smoking pipes laying about, gathering dust etc.... you know where to send them.
Thats all for now, Merry Christmas.
Mark (& Cindi) 
