Pipe of the Month May 2026

William III King of the Netherlands by the Company Gisclon

In may 1874, the silver jubilee of King Willem III was celebrated in the Netherlands and various clay pipe makers from Gouda introduced special commemorative pipes for this occasion. But also pipe makers from other countries saw this as an opportunity to make specific models for export to The Netherlands.

A nice example is this months pipe made by the company Gisclon from Lille, in the North of France. Gisclon was one of the French pipe manufacturers that became famous with their remarkably nicely finished and creative designs and which lead the innovations towards what we nowadays call the 'figural' pipe.

The Gisclon factory was established in 1829 and one of their remaining catalogues shows that they had more then 1.000 different models. This pipe, with model number 1025, has the text WILLEM III KONING DER NEDERLANDEN (Willem III, King of the Netherlands) and the years 1849 and 1874 representing the inauguration and the 25 years jubilee, with below that the date MEI 12 (May 12). The pipe has a short stem, designed to attach a separate stem made of for instance wood of horn. This made it possible for the manufacturer to design a larger and more creatively designed pipe bowl, without disturbing the balance and smoking comfort.

Gisclon was active in Lille until approximately 1870-1880, when it merged with Dutel and moved the manufacturing to Montereau in the vicinity of Paris. In 1895, a large fire destroyed the majority of the factory and production was ceased.