Pipe (late eighteenth century) fomerly in the possession of Nicholas
Vedder (1691-1768),
patriarch of a well-known village in the Catskill mountains in the
Hudson River valley of
New York, where he was landlord of the King George Inn.
It has been reported that
Vedder, who presided over a group of observers which included Derrick
Van Brummel,
Brom Dutcher, and Rip Van Winkle, spoke only rarely, making
his opinions
clear by means of his pipe, with which, when displeased,
he would send
forth short, frequent, and angry puffs. When pleased, on the
other
hand, he would inhale the smoke slowly and tranquilly and emit it
in
light and placid clouds. (Provenance: Peter Vanderdonk
Bequest,
gift of Thomas J. Wise).
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