Alfred Dunhill's fascination for the
tubular pipe

Alfred Dunhill’s fascinatie voor de tubular pipe

By Don Duco

Abstract: In his famous The Pipe Book author Alfred Dunhill demonstrates his interest in the birth of the tobacco pipe and dedicates a full chapter on the most primitive pipe, the tubular. This article describes the oldest pipe from the Dunhill collection. It compares the pipe with four other tubular pipes from other continents, also known to Alfred Dunhill, and now in the Pijpenkabinet collection in Amsterdam.

Sorry, we do not have an English text of this article available. See for the full text the Dutch version of our website.

© Don Duco, Pijpenkabinet Foundation, Amsterdam - Holland, 2007.

Illustrations

1. Tobacco pipe made from steatite with funnel shape with narrow end to be fitted on a reed or bone stem. USA, California.
From: Alfred Dunhill, The Pipe Book, London, 1924, p. 34, Fig. 23. Tube from Prehistoric Grave, California.

2. Tobacco pipe made from greenish black steatite with oval body with a small raised ring round the bowl opening. Excavated California, San Miguel, 800-1200. Length 15,5 centimeters.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 18.084

3. Tobacco pipe made from wood with long conical bowl and mouthpiece shaped like a fish tail. Paraquay, c. 1880-1920.
From: Alfred Dunhill, The Pipe Book, London, 1924, p. 80, Fig. 63. Wooden Tube Pipes from El Gran Chaco.

4. Tobacco pipe made from wood with a cilindrical bowl and a triangular mouth piece, decoration of zigzag lines on the raised rings and along the edges of the mouthpiece. Paraguay, Chaco, 1880-1920. Length 10 centimeters.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 18.086

5. Tobacco pipe made from serpentine stone with conical shape, overall the lines of the carving with a knife. South-Africa, Bushmen, 1900-1920.
From: Alfred Dunhill, The Pipe Book, London, 1924, p. 36, Fig. 28. Serpentine Pipe of Bushman Woman.

6. Tobacco pipe made from brownblack serpentine stone with funnel shape and a button mouthpiece, round the bowl opening incised rings with lines. South-Africa, Khoikhoi, 1880-1910. Length 9 centimeters.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 16.701

7. Tobacco pipe made from wood with a four-sided stem after three disk shapes into a strongly conical four sided bowl, the surface of the stem and the bowl decorated with dots. Afghanistan, 1880-1920.
From: Alfred Dunhill, The Pipe Book, London, 1924, p. 41, Fig. 31. Tube Pipe from Afghanistan.

8. Tobacco pipe made from wood with a long shape with four sided diamater, the thin stem wider to a heavier middle part, after a double set of rings follows the conical bowl. Afghanistan, 1880-1920. Length 31,5 centimeters.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 16.712

9. Tobacco pipe made from briar wood with oval shaped bowl and a buffalo horn mouthpiece. England?, 1900-1920.
From: Alfred Dunhill, The Pipe Book, London, 1924, p. 41, Fig 30. The Dunhill “Onion” Tube Pipe.

10. Tobacco pipe made from briar wood with oval shaped bowl, mounted with a yellowish brown mouthpiece from buffalo horn. Unmarked. France, 1900-1920. Length 11,5 centimeters.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 18.089

Notes

1. George A West, Tobacco, Pipes and Smoking Customs of th American Indians, Milwaukee, 1934, p 133.

2. Joseph D. McGuire, Pipes and Smoking Customs of the American Aborigines, Ellicot City, Maryland, 1898, p 436.

3. Alfred Dunhill, The Pipe Book, London, 1924, p 80.

4. West, 1934, p 567, ill. 2-3.

5. West, 1934, p 155.

6. Dunhill Book of Pipe Shapes, n.d. (c. 1930), s.p. (in the back). Illustrated in the section Hand-worked Quaint Shapes: Trumpet.

7. Dunhill, 1924, p 45.

8. Benedict Goes, 25 eeuwen roken, de verwonderlijke vormgeving van de pijp, Leiden, 1993, p 16.

9. Don Duco, ‘Nieuw in de kollektie: Een precolumbiaan’, Vlugschrift, III-2, 1986, p 11.

10. Don Duco, ‘Aanwinsten: Touareg’, Nieuwsbrief Pijpenkabinet, nr. 5, oktober 2006.

11. D.H. Duco, De Nederlandse kleipijp, handboek voor dateren en determineren, Leiden, 1987, p 60, ill. 198.