Albert Einstein’s smoking pipes to be auctioned off

Albert Einstein, the German theoretical physicist, loves smoking, and the pipes he used are all going to be auctioned off. They are expected to fetch at least £36,000 in the auction.

According to UK’s Metro, most of the photos of Albert Einstein today show him puffing a wooden pipe with his white hair appearing to be uncombed. This just proved his love for smoking, and he joined the Montreal Pipe Smokers Club in 1950. At that time, he was quoted as saying: “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.”

The genius, who is also known for his world-famous special relativity that expresses the equivalence of mass and energy, the e=mc2 equation, was said to have been ordered by his doctor to cut down on smoking, and he obeyed. However, he would resort to cradling the smoking pipe’s bowl in hand or firmly clench the stem between his teeth while thinking deeply.

“He could not bear to give up the tactile experience,” RR Auction’s executive vice president, Bobby Livingston, said with regards to Einstein's developed habit as he tried to reduce his smoking.

RR Auction is a company in Boston that will hold the auction and sell Einstein’s smoking pipes through bidding. There will be nine pipes in all, and they will come with a wooden menorah-style holder that the genius physicist used to display his pipes and easy access.

All the pipes are said to be simple except for two that feature designs. These are said to suit any extravagant buyers. “One has a carved owl design, perhaps given to Einstein as a gift symbolizing his wisdom, and another white pipe features an intriguing design of a foot kicking a ball,” Livingston said.

Fox Business reported that most of Einstein’s pipes have bowls that were made from briarwood. The buyer will also get a letter from the current owner who said that the collection came into their family’s possession in the mid-1980s, which is almost 30 years after the Nobel Prize awardee’s death.

In the "letter of provenance," it was mentioned that Einstein’s pipe collection was acquired by the owner’s family through their connection to the Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey.

Meanwhile, the historic pipe collection is part of RR Auction’s "Remarkable Rarities" event, and buyers have until Sept. 24 to place their bids. On Sept. 25, the live auction will start at 3 p.m., and there are 19 bids at the time of writing, and the price is already at $25,286. The next bidding price is $27,815.