Announcing the Vintages Project

Today is a special day here at A Passion for Pipes, indeed one of the most special days since I started this blog almost five years ago. I’m deeply pleased to announce a new project here: The Vintages Project, a project under the leadership of pipes- and tobaccos-historian and enthusiast Jon Guss.

As I’ve come to know Jon over the last couple years, I have become increasingly impressed by his research and scholarship, the quality of which would satisfy the most rigorous of peer review panels at leading academic institutions and think tanks.

This work is a breath of fresh air in a hobby that is rife with mythology, opinioneering, and old-wives tales – entertaining as those things can be.

Jon GussJon’s first publication on Vintages is a guide to dating tobacco tins from the House of Sobranie, most notably Balkan Sobranie tobaccos, Sullivan and Powell tobaccos, and Sullivan’s tobaccos. You will find a download link on the About Vintages page.

Jon’s business education, his experience in major-firm business consulting, his passions for history, archaeology, and geneology – and the rigor and natural skepticism with which he pursues his subject matter, combine to illuminating effect. He is thoughtful and careful. He is reliable. If he claims something is true, it is only because it has survived his doubt. Knowing him, that’s good enough for me.

Like Jon, I’ve spent some time buried in minutiae, only to glean a few small advances in knowledge. Unlike Jon, I have not developed the extraordinary perseverance and research skills to make sense of innumerable chaotic inputs. It is time-consuming, expensive, and personally taxing to uncover, organize, and test the truth and accuracy of the stories, pipes, people, and companies that comprise the long narrative arc of pipes and tobaccos history.

While it is possible to piece history together, it often requires burrowing through tax archives; reading testamentary documents; perusing litigation; scanning advertisements, directories, and catalogues; and sifting through what most historians would consider the refuse of commerce.

It also requires travel, finding unfindable people, and making sense of cloudy oral histories. Jon loves doing these things, and I believe that his work products will provide an invaluable foundation for the further advancement of knowledge and understanding.

It is Jon’s hope that the Vintages Project will quickly morph into a collaborative project where like-interested researchers will advance the boundaries of knowledge of those subjects being investigated. For this reason, there are discussion forums where questions may be posed and answers proffered.

We both invite you to join in the journey, and to make use of the knowledge and discussion as it emerges.

Comments

[Sam A]

very exciting news!

[Smoking Logician]

I've just downloaded and perused the Sobranie Tobacco Tin Dating pdf. For those wondering about the quality and interestingness of the products the Vintages Project may yield, I can say straightaway that Jon Guss has presented the material in a well-organized format, has obviously researched his subject meticulously, and has managed the difficult feat of injecting his personality into the mix. Jon has produced a stimulating read. His enthusiasm shines through. And this is merely an appendix to a future volume.

Many thanks to both Neill and Jon for putting the project together. We need more works of real scholarship to demarcate the pipe hobby as more than mere hobby -- as something reasonably thought a bona fide cultural tradition. For it is just that.

[Desertpipe]

What great news, and another source of thoughtful and solid information. I have very much enjoyed this Blog, and hope that it continues to be the hub that brings all these great spokes of pipe and tobacco information together.

[toby]

What amazing detail. This project is a wonderful addition to the A Passion for Pipes blog. I'm looking forward to the announced topics. And I am hoping for more. Comoy? Flying Dutchman?

Kudos.

[Jeff Neisler]

Just downloaded the Sobranie pdf & gave it a quick scan. The detail & organization is quite impressive.

I can only second what Smoking Logician said above.

Great work & looking forward to what the future holds for this project!

[E.Roberts]

I'm fortunate not only to be a member of the NY Pipe Club along with Jon and his brother Peter, but also to benefit from Jon's research into the dating of vintages. I've read and re-read the Sobranie tract numerous times, and can attest that it not only has helped inspire my own vintage research but has that most remarkable of qualities for a scholarly paper--it's enjoyable to read!

[Bruno de Figueiredo]

I believe it would be no exaggeration to say that this project and its noble ambitions, alongside the very first fruit it gracefully yielded, represent the single greatest breakthrough witnessed in the field of pipe tobacco studies in a long time. In Mr. Guss' excellent document I found a keenness for rigor and method that is not only rare, as it is laudable in itself. At this point in time, the history of pipe tobacco can no longer be written in broad and imprecise terms; rather, it demands an approach that contemplates its many intricacies to their slightest detail.

The way forth is always uncovered by those who are willing to go to the necessary lengths in order to retrieve information that has never before been examined or suitably treated. Such a display of passion and dedication gives me renewed hope, together with the assurance that this research is now entrusted the best possible hands. I humbly thank you for this gift of inestimable value as I look forward to discovering what other great contributions will henceforth stem from this most admirable of enterprises.