The article describes a remarkable 17th-century presentation pipe from 1661 that was discovered in 1821 during the excavation of the North Holland Canal.
A drawing of the pipe was made at the time, indicating that it was already considered an exceptional object.
For a long time, the location of the pipe was unknown, but it was recently rediscovered in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
This rediscovery allows the original pipe and the historical drawing to be studied together again for the first time.
The pipe is notably large and richly decorated with stamped patterns such as lilies and geometric motifs, indicating high quality.
Technically, the pipe is unusual because it appears to have been constructed from two parts, possibly with a specific function or symbolic meaning.
Names and a date are stamped on the heel of the pipe, suggesting it was a unique or limited production piece.
The presence of two names on one pipe may indicate a collaboration between pipe makers or that it served as a commemorative object.
Symbols such as acorns and decorative elements may refer to themes like durability, cooperation, or status.
The article highlights the need for further research to better understand the exact meaning, origin, and function of this unique presentation pipe.
A rare and large, early seventeenth century pipe fragment was discovered as a
stray find in Amsterdam. The bowl has a remaining length of 6 centimeters but
was originally longer. The pipe is not made in a mould but seems to be completely
shaped by hand. The bowl form is based on a pipe from the period 1600-1630
and although the bowl looks very voluminous, the amount of tobacco in the pipe
is the same as that of a standard pipe from that period. During the production
process, the rear was slightly flattened in the middle (Fig. 7). This was most likely
done to allow the pipe to rest whilst smoking
Auguste de Marmont, called it ‘The most beautiful camp in the world’, the army
camp that he had established in 1804 near the current village of Austerlitz. An
estimated 18,000 soldiers camped there during the summers of 1804 and 1805.
Marmont had been appointed by Napoleon as commander of the combined
English
summaries
146
French-Batavian forces in the Republic. He became one of the most powerful men in the Batavian Republic and he could more or less dictate the actions of the Batavian government. A small part of the camp was recently excavated. The excavations were carried out in the years 2017-2019. During the various excavation campaigns, many hundreds of fragments of clay pipes were found, including many stem fragments. In this article only the 328 clay pipe bowls with a heel are discussed
Little is known about the pipe industry in the province of Zeeland and the tobacco pipes that were sent elsewhere from the Netherlands to this province for use and trade. This article deals with two small groups of 17th century clay pipes that are found in the city of Middelburg. Although these pipes have not been found in an archaeological context, it is worthwhile to report briefly on the models, qualities and marks, due to the scarce information on this part of The Netherlands. The majority of the marked pipes consists of well-known models from Gouda and Gorinchem in the province of South Holland. A small number of pipes come from Bergen op Zoom in the province of North Brabant and a few pipes appear to be from Rotterdam and Leiden (South Holland). In Zeeland, pipes with large-sized bowls are also regularly found and seem to be intended specifically for the Zeeland market. Remarkably, these pipes were not found in the two groups discussed here.
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.
This article describes a small group of unmarked, complete figural clay pipes
from an unknown production centre and similar pipes from stray finds in
Gouda. The pipes are dated 1880-1900. The complete pipes have certain things
in common that might indicate they are from the same manufacturer or from
the same production area. One group has a red painted band around the stem
and another group has a black band. Another peculiarity is that some of the
mouthpieces are cut diagonally while others are cut straight. The provenance
of some of these pipes is questionable. Although they first appear to be from
France or Belgium it is very well possible that they were made in Gouda in pipe
moulds that originated in France or Belgium. Another possibility is that they
originate from the Trumm-Bergmans company in Weert.
‘Les Fleurs animées’ is a Gambier pipe with three standing female figures wearing
flowers in their clothes and hair. Between these figures we see a butterfly
and a dragonfly. At the underside a frog and a large beetle are depicted. The
name of this pipe refers to a book (from 1847) by the French caricaturist Jean
Ignace Isidore Gérard Grandville which contains beautiful, colored prints of,
among others, female figures that are half human, half flower. The stories and
poems, written by Alphonse Karr en Taxile Delord, describes the personifications
of flowers as residents of the Palace of the Flower Fairies. This pipe is only
mentioned in the inventory list from 1858 of the Paris Gambier exhibition and
does not appear in catalogs or accompanying nomenclatures. The interest in this
pipe with representations from the book apparently soon disappeared, despite
the beautiful and appealing design with six colors of enamel.
Over the centuries, pipes have been fitted with a lid. The main function of this
was to prevent glowing tobacco particles from falling out of the pipe while
smoking. Most spark catchers are made from braided copper or iron wire. In
some European countries we also see the use of beautiful silver lids on porcelain
148
and meerschaum pipes. In the first half of the 19th century the French clay pipe manufacturers responded to these refinements by providing clay pipes with a lid. These were usually made from pipe clay and formed part of the design. These lids were often provided with a small hole. The lid could be attached to the pipe bowl with an iron wire or chain. Examples are given from the companies of Gisclon, Fiolet, Blanc-Garin and Gambier.
In the castle Königs Wusterhausen, circa 35 kilometers south of Berlin in the German state of Brandenburg, a small number of finds are exhibited in a display case and include more than twenty fragments of clay pipes. The castle was owned by Frederick William I, King of Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg (1713-1740). He used the castle from August until November as a base for hunting and as a residence. In the evenings he held his famous Tobacco College (Tabakskollegium) where serious political discussion was conducted alongside coarse joke telling, alcohol consumption, and the smoking of tobacco. After the death of Frederick William I in 1740, the castle lost its national importance and was subsequently little visited. The clay pipes have a form that can be dated in the period 1730-1740 and are marked with the Windmill, the mark of Gouda pipe maker Jacob Arijsz Danens (1722-1759). Since there is no coat of Arms of the city of Gouda the pipes are most likely made in or before 1739.
Frederick the Great (1712-1786) was the most famous king of the Hohenzollern family. He was king in East Prussia from 1740, Elector of Prussia and then, from 1772, King of all Prussia. Thanks to the economic and military reforms of his father, Frederick William I, he managed to transform Brandenburg-Prussia into a major European power. Unlike his father and grandfather (Frederick I) who were great lovers of the Dutch pipe, he was a great admirer of snuff. Frederick the Great had a major influence on the export of Gouda pipes. As early as 1742, mercantilist
English summaries
149
Jaarboek van de PKN, stichting voor onderzoek historische tabakspijpen, 2019
measures were prepared in Prussia to protect their own pipe industry. In 1754
the pipe factory in Berlin was exempt from tolls and from taxes for the clay.
In Silesia the Lubliniec factory was given a monopoly for 20 years and in the
same year an import duty of 2.5 florins per gross was introduced. In 1756 an
import ban was introduced for the five middle provinces (Kurmark, Magdeburg,
Halberstadt, Neumark and Pomerania and Silesia. These bans remained in force
until the 19th century. A portrait pipe of Frederick the great was made by the
French Dutel firm. The pipe was designed by the French sculptor Robert Osmond.
Slip cast pipes of Bordollo were already being imported into the Netherlands in
large numbers in the last quarter of the 19th century, at a time when Dutch pipe
makers produced only moulded pipes. Bordollo made, amongst others, pipes with
pictures accompanied with sayings and proverbs that were clearly made for the
Dutch market. These pipes form only a small output of the whole production of
Bordollo. Most of the pipes in this group have a printed decor in black and white.
The subjects of the images are very different. There are pipes with proverbs,
pipes with scenes from daily life, monuments and other representations that
were popular in the Netherlands. It has been possible to trace the original
imagery on which some of the pipes have been based. Remarkably, these pipes
were made in Germany with Dutch texts and Dutch representations. On some
pipes there are visible errors in the texts.
They are usually called Weckmänner - bread figures with a fired pipe, which are for
sale in Germany in the period from Saint Martin (11 November) to Saint Nicholas
(5 December). The origin of this practice is unknown as is when the tradition of
adorning the Weckmänner with a pipe first occurred but it was probably as early
as the 19th century. In the early 20th century, after the First World War, the
production of clay pipes declined dramatically and pipe makers looked for other
products to continue their business. They began to produce children’s toys,
shooting gallery figures, money boxes and pipes for the Weckmänner. In the
20th and 21st centuries, these pipes became a much sought after product. All
these pipes are made in the Westerwald and are usually called Nicolauspfeifen.
Articles about miniature pipe racks appeared in the PKN yearbooks 2016 and 2017. The aim of these articles was to present a comprehensive overview about the known pipe racks. Recently some previously unknown pipe racks have been found and it has been decided to write this supplement. This is especially because two miniature pipe racks from ‘De Porceleyne Fles’ in Delft have been found, the oldest of which can be dated 27 years earlier than the racks made in Gouda or described in the earlier articles. These racks were made in 1891 and 1902. The history of the miniature, pottery pipe racks apparently did not start in Gouda at Ivora, but in Delft. These racks had no souvenir function at that time and were designed as a decorative curiosity..
In the Gouda Museum a painted oak chest of the Gouda pipe maker’s guild is kept. Originally the box stood in the guild room of the ‘Herthuys’ an inn on the Market in Gouda where the board of the pipe maker’s guild held their meetings. Guild papers, accounts and guild letters were kept in it. In the same room hung a wooden board with all the pipe makers’ marks that were in use at that time. The painting dates from 1773 but the chest may be older, since it was most likely painted over during important changes of management. At the front is a painting of the crowned coat of arms of Gouda with two climbing lions and there are three ‘coats of arms’ resembling tools that were used in the pipe makers workshop on either side, accompanied by the names of pipe makers / guild members. The tools on the guild chest are the oldest known paintings of pipe makers tools. They have not been described before. With the exception of the crossed pipes, only finishing tools are shown.
A bottering tool is a turned object usually made of wood or bone that was used to shape and smoothly finish the rim of a pipe bowl after it came from the pipe mould and had been trimmed. These small tools are usually disc shaped, with a groove to form the rim. They were made in different sizes to fit the size of the bowl and the thicknesses of the rim. The bottering tools presented in this articleare attached to a pipe (fragment) with a string. They hung in the pipe makers workshop and the sets were assembled to ensure that the correct bottering tool was always used with the correct pipe model. Some of the pipes are baked but most are of unbaked clay.
A tobacco jar made from the wood of a pulpit is very unusual. In 1867 it was
decided to demolish and rebuild the church in Farmsum, a small town close to
Delfzijl in the norther province of Groningen. The organ, baptismal font, furniture
and wall panelling of the old church were removed. The baptismal font and the
organ have been replaced in the new church and the wall panelling, in rococo
style, has been placed in the church of Opwierde, where it still is. The pulpit, on
the other hand, has not been preserved and was demolished in 1867. No images
are known of this pulpit. From the inscriptions on the inside of the lid of the
tobacco jar we now know that the pulpit was built circa 1640, presumably in the
Dutch Baroque style.
