JB 2019 (art) – An 18th Century Masonic Cigar Pipe

Authors: Bert van der Lingen and Ruud Stam

Yearbook PKN, Society for Historic Tobacco Pipe Research, 2019

Recently a very rare tubular cigar pipe from the second half of the 18th century was discovered in an old English collection. So far only seven other pipes with this form have been described and all of them have a similar maker’s mark - the crowned 73 made by Gouda pipe maker Arij van Houten or his son Andries. The Van Houtens worked in the years 1745-1802. Smoking cigars occurred only rarely in The Netherlands in this period but increased rapidly in the 19th century. The pipe is decorated with symbols of freemasonry on the side where the cigar was inserted. Unfortunately, the pipe is not marked. It appears that the pipe mould originally had a different decoration or even a maker’s mark which at a certain moment was changed. Possibly it came from an old freemasonry lodge and has been preserved there for centuries.

Article available in Dutch language