A richly illustrated survey documents the history, botany, and ethnography of tobacco and related smoking plants alongside a catalog of pipes and smoking apparatus from around the world. It describes botanical varieties of Nicotiana, regional smoking customs, and the materials and forms of pipes — clay, briar, soapstone, gourd, hookah and opium apparatus — and reproduces historic woodcuts and maker stamps. Organized as descriptive entries with images and captions, the work compares local manufacturing traditions, ceremonial uses, and changing fashions in smoking paraphernalia across Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific.
