Académie Internationale de la Pipe

Basic Information

The Académie Internationale de la Pipe (Academy for the Study of Tobacco and Tobacco Pipes) is a learned society which, according to its statutes, was established “to advance the education of the public in the economic and social history of tobacco and pipe smoking worldwide.” Specifically, it attempts to promote a better awareness of the tobacco pipe as a cultural, artistic, and social phenomenon and to highlight the particular place the pipe holds in the history of peoples and civilizations. It supports and encourages the collecting of both artifacts and documentary information about pipe smoking and encourages serious research on pipes and related subjects.

The Academy came into being in 1984 on the initiative of a Frenchman, André-Paul Bastien. Initially based in Italy, it moved to France in 1992. Membership of the Academy consists of three distinct constituencies: serious collectors of pipes and tobacco related artifacts, curators of national museum and...