Editing Tobacco pipe (section)

====Calabash====
{{Unreferenced section|date=December 2021}}
[[File:calabash-pipe.jpg|thumb|Calabash pipe with meerschaum bowl. This particular example was made in the US by the Pioneer pipe company. First appearing in the late 1960s, these were sold as a cheaper alternative to European-made calabashes.{{citation-needed|date=January 2022}}  The Vulcanite joiner and fussy bit are distinctive signs of the company's manufacture.{{citation-needed|date=January 2022}} ]]

[[Calabash]] [[gourd]]s (usually with [[meerschaum]] or [[porcelain]] bowls set inside them) have long made prized pipes, but they are labour-intensive and, today, quite expensive. Because of this expense, pipes with bodies made of wood (usually [[mahogany]]) instead of gourd, but with the same classic shape, are sold as calabashes. Both wood and gourd pipes are functionally the same (with the important exception that the dried gourd, usually being noticeably lighter, sits more comfortably in the mouth). They consist of a downward curve that ends with an upcurve where the bowl sits.  Beneath the bowl is an air chamber which serves to cool, dry, and mellow the smoke. There are also briar pipes being sold as calabashes. These typically do not have an air chamber and are so named only because of their external shape.

A calabash pipe is rather large and easy to recognize as a pipe when used on a stage in dramatic productions. Although a British newspaper cartoon of the early 1900s depicts the British actor [[H. A. Saintsbury]] as the Great Detective smoking what may be a calabash pipe,{{citation-needed|date=January 2022}} its now-stereotypical identification with [[Sherlock Holmes]] remains a mystery.

Some commentators{{Who|date=January 2022}} have erroneously associated the calabash with [[William Gillette]], the first actor to become universally recognized as the embodiment of the detective. Gillette actually introduced the curving or bent pipe for use by Holmes, but his pipe was an ornate briar.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Giford |first=Emily E. |date=2021-02-27 |title=Holmes at Home: The Life of William Gillette - Connecticut History {{!}} a CTHumanities Project |url=https://connecticuthistory.org/holmes-at-home-the-life-of-william-gillette/ |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=Connecticut History {{!}} a CTHumanities Project - Stories about the people, traditions, innovations, and events that make up Connecticut's rich history. |language=en}}</ref> Gillette chose a bent pipe, more easily clenched in the teeth when delivering lines.<ref>{{Cite news |last=de Castella |first=Tom |date=2015-01-26 |title=William Gillette: Five ways he transformed how Sherlock Holmes looks and talks |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30932322 |access-date=2024-03-20 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>

While there are promotional stills of [[Basil Rathbone]] smoking calabash pipes as Holmes for other projects, most notably his radio show, in his first two outings as Holmes produced by [[20th Century-Fox]] as taking place in the [[Victorian era]], Rathbone smoked an apple-bowled, black briar with a half bend, made by Dunhill,{{citation-needed|date=January 2022}}  the company known for making the best pipes at that time.{{citation-needed|date=January 2022}} In the next dozen films, the series produced by [[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]], with Holmes and Watson updated to the 1940s, Rathbone smokes a much less expensive Peterson half bend with a billiard-shaped bowl. A calabash is introduced in ''[[The Spider Woman]]'' but Holmes does not smoke it.{{citation-needed|date=January 2022}} 

In the original chronicles, such as "[[The Adventure of the Copper Beeches]]", Sherlock Holmes is described as smoking a long-stemmed cherrywood, which he favored "when in a disputatious, rather than a meditative mood." Holmes smokes an old briar-root pipe on occasion, for example in ''[[The Sign of the Four]]'', and an "unsavory" and "disreputable" black and oily clay pipe in several stories, notably in "The Red-Headed League". Dr Watson declares it to be the detective's preferred pipe: "It was to him as a counsellor" (''[[A Case of Identity]]''), the "companion of his deepest meditations" (''[[The Valley of Fear]]'')..
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