Pipe of the Month August 2026
Martha Washington
This month we highlight an exceptional clay pipe from Großalmerode, a town in the German state of Hesse, situated not far from the River Werra, a tributary of the Weser.
At the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, Großalmerode maintained numerous direct connections with America. These ties originated in the participation of Hessian soldiers in the American War of Independence. In addition, Bremen's tobacco trade with America expanded enormously during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, creating extensive commercial contacts with ports such as Baltimore and New York. Large quantities of tobacco were transported along the Weser to tobacco factories in Minden and Ravensberg. Pipe merchants also travelled to America. Two well-known examples are Carl Droste, a merchant and owner of a pipe factory, who visited America in 1836, and Peter Wilhelm Meseke, the son of a pipe maker from Uslar, who likewise travelled there in 1836. Meseke remained in America for some twenty years, where he was engaged, among other things, in the pipe trade.
In America, so-called insert-stem pipes, fitted with a wooden or reed stem, were particularly popular. Many of these pipes bore portraits of American presidents. These red-fired clay pipes were generally of rather poor quality. Merchants from the Weser region who had settled or travelled in America realised that the pipe makers of Uslar and Großalmerode could produce such pipes more cheaply and to a much higher standard. For the pipe makers of Großalmerode and Uslar this represented an important new export market, as their industry had declined during the early nineteenth century due to fierce competition from Gouda. The manufacture of these German-made versions of American pipes proved to be an outstanding commercial success. The scale of this trade is reflected in production figures for 1850, when the combined output of Großalmerode and Uslar amounted to approximately 32 million of these so-called cuff pipes (Manschettenpfeifen). The pipes were exported to America via the Werra and Weser rivers and through the merchant houses of Bremen.
Most pipes produced in Großalmerode and Uslar were either made of red- or white clay and were finished in a relatively simple manner. Only a small number were coated with red or black lacquer.
Glazed pipes, or pipes decorated with a metallic coating, such as this Pipe of the Month, are exceedingly rare. It remains uncertain whether this particular finish was actually applied in Großalmerode. The pipe depicted here is a portrait pipe representing Martha Washington, the wife of the first President of the United States. She is shown wearing a headdress closely resembling that in a portrait painted by Rembrandt Peale, dating from around 1856.
