JB 2019 (art) – Les Fleurs animées, a Pipe with a Story

Author: Arthur van Esveld

Yearbook PKN, Society for Historic Tobacco Pipe Research, 2019

'Les Fleurs animées' is a Gambier pipe depicting three standing female figures adorned with flowers in their garments and hair. Between these figures are a butterfly and a dragonfly, while the underside is decorated with a frog and a large beetle. The name of this pipe refers to Les Fleurs animées, a book published in 1847 by the French caricaturist Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard Grandville. Among its most striking features are beautifully coloured illustrations of female figures portrayed as hybrids, part woman and part flower. The accompanying stories and poems, written by Alphonse Karr and Taxile Delord, present these floral personifications as inhabitants of the Palace of the Flower Fairies. This pipe is mentioned only in the inventory of the Gambier exhibition held in Paris in 1858 and does not appear in any known catalogues or accompanying nomenclatures. Interest in this pipe, inspired by imagery from Grandville's publication, appears to have faded rapidly, despite its attractive design and the use of six enamel colours.