This sixth edition of the Pijpenkabinet Newsletter is dedicated to opium. The occasion is the edition of the newest book by Don Duco: Opium and Opium Smoking (Opium en opiumschuiven). In this Newsletter you will find an introduction to this new book, including the backgrounds of its origin and the sources. Next to this, we inform you as usual about some acquisitions and more.

Opium and opium smoking, a sourcebook by Don Duco
It is for the fist time that Don Duco, curator of the Pijpenkabinet, publishes a book on non-European smoking. Although opium smoking can be traced in Western-Europe and the US, it is primarily an Asian habit notably in China and the Dutch East-Indies.

Nevertheless the new book fits perfectly in the policy of the Pijpenkabinet Foundation: to publish on historic smoking pipes in order to disseminate the knowledge and expertise. As in our other publications the book does not only give a description of the pipes, but also the historic context of the objects is fully treated, in particular in this book. Literature on opium is widely available, but very few books in Dutch exist. For that reason we decided to make a full survey of the history of the use of opium, the trade, the smoking habit and the pipe itself.

In Opium en opiumschuiven the reader should be able to find every piece of information on the subject, complete with references to the original sources by a great number of footnotes. For that reason the book bears the subtitle a source book (Bronnenboek). Rarely found in other books is a systematic description of the opium pipe that does not look like any other pipe in the world. Duco gives this information not only on the pipes but also on all attributes used within the opium habit. This information makes the book a valuable source for collectors to deepen their knowledge, for students and scholars to find all they want to know about this special part of history.

The Contence
Duco’s newest book starts with the plant that gives the raw material of the opium: the Papaver somniferum. He describes the process of growing, harvesting and processing the oil to loafs or balls of opium. The preparation of the refined smoking opium is an art that is rarely known nowadays, since opium dens have been forbidden for a long time. The historic survey of the use of opium dates back as far as millenniums before Christ. Not smoked yet, but eaten as small pills or dissolved in alcohol.

The most fascinating part is the addiction of millions of Chinese after the proper opium pipe has been invented. The imports of tons of opium from India by English traders in Canton during the nineteenth century stimulated this addiction enormously. The trade was of utmost economic importance and got even a political impact, leading to the renowned two Opium Wars. In the end smoking opium spreads over the world, up to fancy smoke rooms in Paris, London and San Francisco. Only in the twentieth century the health lobby succeeded to vanish opium form public life. What rests are the opium pipes, lamps, boxes and other instruments of the smokers. In many cases beautiful examples of Chinese craftsmanship, executed in exotic materials such as ivory and tortoise-shell, finished with embossed silver.

The systematic description of all elements and decorations of the paraphernalia is the quality of Duco’s work. As an art-historian he knows perfectly to dissolve the mythical clouds that antique dealers like to create around every object that might be opium related. Duco introduces the vocabulary for the opium pipe in Dutch, just like he did for the clay pipe a few decades ago.

Sources
The collection of the Pijpenkabinet holds a fine set of opium pipes, displayed in a separate show case that underlines the very different nature of these pipes, both in shape and in use. They vary from humble farmers pipes to pipes of pomp and beauty. Since the variety is huge, the Pijpenkabinet does not strive for completeness, but collects a representative overview of different types and materials. Of course completed by a set of tools and other paraphernalia for the opium smoker. This special collection illustrates the newest book.

A literature study preceded the actual writing. Our library hold various books that treat the opium pipe in a certain way. But in 2005 a large number of books on drugs and opium came onto the Dutch market. A phenomenal library was sold in three separate auctions in which several meters of books on opium. The Pijpenkabinet was able to acquire an important part of these books to enlarge our library. So, most of the sources are available within reach, now and in future.

Apart form the Pijpenkabinet collection two other collections happen to exist in Amsterdam. One proved to contain the most beautiful pipes, selected over the years, not many but of the highest quality. The other one consisted not only of pipes, but also the whole range of Chinese paraphernalia. These two private collections would have been unknown, if not the idea emerged to assemble these collections in an exhibition and a book. Don Duco contributed with his research in literature and on the objects themselves. The result of this research will be published in April this year.

Duco’s research on the opium history and pipes, however, was so exiting and extensive that the Pijpenkabinet Foundation decided to process this in a separate, scientific publication, illustrated by the material from our own collection. Doing so a lot of new information is presented to the public. The title of this book is Opium & opiumschuiven.

Special offer up to April 15
Opium en Opiumschuiven, een bronnenboek (Opium and Opium Smoking, a source book) by Don Duco is priced at € 30,- and is available at the Pijpenkabinet and regular bookshops. With 256 pages and over 150 black-and-white photos, also a full international literature list and references throughout the book. Orders at the Pijpenkabinet within the Netherlands are sent without additional costs for postage. Costs for shipping world-wide depends of the destination.

All people who receive the Newsletter Pijpenkabinet can order with a special discount: up to April 15 the book for only € 25,- including postage !

Transfer € 25 on Postbank account 310 40 88 (use the codes: BIC: PSTBNL21,
IBAN: NL56 PSTB 0003 1040 88, attn: Stichting Pijpenkabinet, Amsterdam, Holland)
stating your full postal address and you get your copy within some days.

Acquisitions between east and west

Chinese pipe
As all antique lovers know, nearly all exotic pipes are offered as opium pipes. The magic thrill about opium, in combination with the suppression of the use, adds to the commercial success. However, the amount of tobacco pipes from Asia is larger than you should expect. Tobacco is smoked in practical all Asian countries and pipes are known from all of them.

Earlier this year the Pijpenkabinet acquired a unique Chinese pipe, which again has nothing to do with opium. It is a tobacco pipe made out of a bamboo trunk. This type of pipe is known form Southern-China and Birma, although the acquired example is special for its huge size. The length of 70 centimetres is not uncommon, but the diameter of eight centimetres is exceptional. Normally younger branches of bamboo are used, not wider than one or two centimetres. Since tobacco is smoked in small quantities in Asia, pipes have usually a tiny bowl. I this case, the bowl is bigger, over a centimetre wide and three deep. Quite modest for a modern European briar pipe, but rather large for an Asian pipe. According to the usual Chinese smoking habit, finely cut strong tobacco is smoked. With this size the contents of the bowl will result in a heavy smoke.

Pipes made out of bamboo branches and trunks are very popular in China. The Chinese have a strong preference for natural design and the bamboo gives a fine rhythm of the knobs and the alternating enterings of the leaves.

The trunk part of this particular bamboo is so heavy that it offers the possibility to make a carving. A fish head with wide-open mouth holds a crouching figure between its sharp teeth. Originally the pipe has been finished with several brass parts and ornaments: around the bowl opening, the hat of the figure including a metal mouthpiece. Small nail holes betray the lost finishings.

The origin of the pipe is uncertain. The object was found in the antique trade in The Hague, the Netherlands and it is said that the pipe was preserved some generations in Dutch private possession. Comparable objects are hard to find; while the smaller standard-size pipes are known by the thousands, these large ones are extremely rare.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 18.502.

French briar
In Saint-Claude, the centre of pipemaking in France, we acquired a remarkable pipe for the museum, dating back to about 1920, so an early briar pipe. Photographed up-side down the object clearly represents a revolver. The bowl is a so-called neogène, an oval shape suitable to be produced by machines. The shaft is mounted with a nickle band in which a metal stem is fixed with a screw attachment. In the right position a keeper, designed as the trigger of the revolver, keept the stem in its right position. The pipe stem holds another secret: to the vulcanite mouthpiece a bone shank is attached that goes through the wide nickel stem, and seems to have functioned as an isolator. At the end of the bone tube a part made out of softwood absorbs the moisture of the smoke before it can enter the smoke channel. In fact, this pipe is an early example of the system pipes which became extremely popular in the 1950’s for a dry, clean and hygienic smoke.

A text printed in the metal rim says that the pipe is patented. The intricate way in which all different elements are assembled, suggests that the pipe has been made by an inventor. However, a commercial success was hard to foresee with such a difficult make. For our collection it is a fine example, both of an early system pipe and a pipe-revolver combination, of which our collection holds already half a dozen varieties.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk18.550.

Confrérie de Maîtres Pipiers de Saint Claude
Saint Claude is a quiet mountain village in the French Jura, not far from Geneva. In the course of the nineteenth century local craftsmen developed the most important pipe industry of France, of briar pipes to be more precise. Some well known factories are still active. The master pipemakers, both craftsmen and directors, are assembled in a corporation: the Maîtres-Pipiers. Since forty years promotion for the Saint Claude pipes is made by the brotherhood of pipe aficionados: the Confrérie.

A few times a year new members, prominent pipe smokers, are introduced to this special club. Don Duco, confrère himself since 1998, proposed the president of the Amsterdam Pipe Club. On 16th of March the full membership of the Amsterdam club was present to witness the solemn introduction of mrs. Anneroos Meyboom. After having heard all her merits in then field of pipe smoking and pipe promotion, she got the symbols of her adherence: a chain of office in the colours of the city (blue and yellow), with a briar medallion. Both the French and the Dutch press reported on the rare occasion that a lady was rewarded this honour for enthusiastically smoking a pipe.

The Amsterdam Pipe Club enjoyed a pleasant journey to France, a visit to a shopping mall with pipes shops on a row, excursions to a pipe makers’ workshop and a factory and also a fine dinner after the ceremony.

Pipe for the Club
During the December meeting of the Amsterdam Pipe Club all 15 members received a special club pipe, made in the same shape, but unique in itself because of the flame of the briar. It is a pipe with a classic, although uncommon shape: the stand-up poker. The cylindrical bowl stands on its flat bottom, the saddle stem giving it a touch of youth. The pipe is personalised as the club pipe by an engraving APG (Amsterdam Pijprokers Genootschap) at the bottom.

The series is made by Søren Refbjerg Rasmussen from Copenhagen, Denmark. He has been choosen from all Danish workshops making exclusive briar pipes, because of his fine selection of Greek briar, his equilibrated design of classic shapes and excellent craftsmanship. Proudly his initial R is shown on the pipe’s mouthpiece.

Publication on the web
In our previous Newsletter we announced that several articles by Don Duco on pipes are published in its entire on our website. Earlier this year we published again three more articles that treat a specialised aspect of the history of pipes.

- The Assortment of Arend van Dijk, pipemaker in Gouda, Holland - 1988
- The diamond pipe by Goedewaagen, a remarkable hollow bowl design - 1991
- An early pipe from Burkina Faso - 1998

Go to www.pijpenkabinet.nl choose § 19 “Complete list of publications”. In the list, in chronological order, the linked titles are underlined. Click on the title for a new page to the article (partly in Dutch, some of them in English).

Opium Exhibition
In Kunsthal in Rotterdam the exhibition Opium, The Black Perfume can be visited from April 28 to July 8. This exhibition is based on two private collections from Amsterdam. According to the press-release the exhibition is the first in presenting the richness of this Chinese opium habit. Next to a historic overview, beautiful paraphernalia used by smokers will be shown, such as pipes and lamps. Even a replica of a luxurious opium den is made, including a decorated opium bed from the nineteenth century. The illustrated catalogue Opium, Art and History of a Lost Ritual is available for € 59,95 in Dutch, English and French. The publication, made by Ferry Bertholet with research by Don Duco will also be for sale at Smokiana, the museumshop ran by the Pijpenkabinet Foundation in Amsterdam.

End of the sixth Newsletter
Thank you for your interest and till the next issue !
We are happy to respond to any reactions or questions. Just click on mailto:info@pijpenkabinet .
Or continue on our web site http://www.pijpenkabinet.nl/

Benedict Goes
PR en Publicity Pijpenkabinet

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