This Newsletter is dedicated to two special events that came up this Fall and are both remarkable but in full contrast to each other. The first is the auction of the famous tobacco collection of the Seita, the French tobacco monopoly, a great event and at the same time a sad statement. It shows that the continuity of the tobacco collections worldwide is under severe pressure. Opposite to this the Pijpenkabinet reached its forty years of existence on October first lately. This issue memorizes briefly our history with not more than one caption. Thereafter this Newsletter focuses on the Seita collection, of which our museum has been able to acquire an important series of items. In the end as usual some various subjects come up.

October 1 1969 – October 1 2009
Along the Amsterdam Keizersgracht cannel draglines traced on the first of October 1969 a large rectangular rubbish pit with masses of archaeological finds. Later it would appear that on this spot a pub or smoking house was housed, where between 1630 and 1660 people met for a smoke and a drink. The find of thousands of clay tobacco pipes fragments from the mentioned period turned the sixteen year old Don Duco into an amateur archaeologist interested in the origin, the function and dating of these clay tobacco pipes.

Now, forty years later, the finds of the Keizersgracht pit are still an important part of the study collection of the Pijpenkabinet, the museum that was founded on these archaeological finds. Since the cess pit was emptied, four decennia of collecting and study followed with as memorable facts the opening of the Pijpenkamer in Amsterdam in 1975, the move to Leiden in 1982 and finally the move to our current address again in Amsterdam in 1995.

The Pijpenkabinet foundation decided not to pay special attention to this personal jubilee. With several projects at work, we decided that a celebration in 2015 would be more suitable, when the museum is open to public for forty years. Nevertheless, a jubilee should be marked with a present, and that present came due to the auctions that were held almost in the same week.

The Paris museum of the Seita
Many collectors and lovers of pipes and the culture of smoking would have visited the impressive Seita museum when in Paris. On the corner of the Rue Jean Nicot, at the main floor of the headquarter of the French firm an attractive museum was to be found, an ode to tobacco and its culture. Next to a hospitable museum, the place was also known because of the numerous theme exhibitions on the field of smoking, and modern art as well.

The idea for this specialized museum was born in Paris at the International Exhibition of 1937. By the Service d’Exploitation Industrielle des Tabacs et des Allumettes a pavilion was designed dedicated to the history of the tobacco and fire making. As visitors were extremely enthusiastic about the initiative, it was decided that in the new built office of the firm on the Quai d’Orsay, the so called Hotel du Tabac, an aesthetic exhibition on the culture of smoking was presented.

In 1979 the museum was restyled although in fact the museum was officially starting, when the French factories for tobacco and matches opened Le Musée-galerie de la Seita. This could happen because of the purchase of a private collection brought together by a certain Eugène Jance from Marseille. The house of this ardent collector was filled with various collections of which the subject tobacco and pipes were among the most favorable. The Seita acquired his collection in 1977 and time was there to realize a new museum.

Form the moment the museum was open to public the Seita strived to present the culture of tobacco in all its variety. Mainly items from their own possession were shown, about half of them originating from the extend Jance collection, completed with objects on loan from the Paris Musée de l’Homme. Of the 2,000 items the Seita possessed at that time, about a thousand were on view in the museum, the others were used for promotional purposes.

The most important part of the collection in the museum was a unique series of snuff rasps in wood and ivory of extremely high artistic value. Next to that the exhibition gave an overview in the culture of smoking in France, with excursions to other continents. A separate showcase was dedicated to theme exhibitions. The permanent display was a state-of-the-art in museum techniques with items hanging on thin nylon strings, illuminated by tiny spots in a totally dark room. At last, in the year 2000 the museum was closed for reason that the head quarter moved to a suburb of Paris.

The final decision to sell the collection ten years later was a logic result of the closing of the museum. The Seita, in the meantime renamed as Altadis due to the regrouping with other large firms, did not foresee new possibilities for the collection in the future. Three auctions were needed to disperse over 3,000 objects, for private persons as well as dealers and museums a unique chance to purchase items from this rich collection. Our decision was to acquire some topics, but also to complete some groups in our museum with items that were still missing. This turned out to be a good intention as will be shown in the following review.

Prehistory of smoking
From the earliest period of smoking the Seita possessed a representative selection. They had several pre Columbian items on view like the so-called tubular, one of them with two portrait masks. This item should date between 100 and 300 AD. A majestic piece is a pipe shaped like the famous mescaline cactus, but not the common globular shape, but an elongated version with a straight stem, showing cooling ribs along bowl and stem. The mouth piece of this pipe is covered with white slip.

North-American Indian pipes were represented with attractive examples. A hand shaped platform pipe of greyish black steatite is characteristic for the Mould builders. The dating of these pieces remains a matter of discussion, especially when the find spot is no longer known. A more characteristic Indian pipe is made in pipe stone, normally red, here the rarer green variety is used, embellished with pewter or lead inlay and a series of holes drilled in the surface.

More recent in date but of utmost rarity are pipes from a tribe living in the east-Amazon area in South-America. The pipes are carved from a local tree wood while a piece of bird bone serves as a stem. These pipes have an adorable primitive appearance and the pointed base of the items, that also serves to hold the pipe when smoked, makes their design unique.

Pipes in meerschaum
More civilized and from a completely different culture are the meerschaum pipes, the material often described as the white goddess. Although rarely of French origin the Seita collection possessed numerous interesting items. Our choice for good quality was restricted because many of these fragile pipes were damaged by the use as publicity items by the tobacco firm.

A rather unusual pipe bowl has a cubic shape with along the four sides of the bowl a porch of a gothic cathedral. On the top five openings can be seen, four to use as pipe bowl, the one in the middle purely decorative. It is obvious a prestige pipe from the 1830 or 1840’s, unfortunately the place of origin is still unknown.

What sort of smoker was using the majestic portrait of a non with beautiful shaped hat. Special in this design is also the long straight stem with amber mouth piece. More amusing are tobacco pipes of which the bowls are shaped like animal heads representing a wild boar or a friendly dog. Both pipes are remarkable because of their large size. Of course, the collection contained also numerous ordinary cigar or cheroot holders, of which the one with the portrait of the German emperor is very finely executed.

Porcelains
Apparently the Seita spent much attention on the porcelain pipes, since the collection contained fine qualities. Especially the figurals reached high prices in Paris. Two remarkable pieces were acquired by the Pijpenkabinet. The pipe bowl known as the Polish person originating from the famous Meissen factory is extremely important. Interesting about this item is that it concerns an early modelling: the collar of the represented person is still showing the highly fashionable rocaille lacework, later versions no longer have. The museum value of this item is up levelled by the original gold tooled leather box that still houses the pipe, complete with its multi-parted ivory stem that screws together.

Another extremely attractive pipe bowl represents a woman’s portrait in a broad rimmed hat. The Louis-XVI coiffure marks the dating of this item. Due to its modelling and fashionable colours, the pipe can be attributed to Ludwigsburg and dates from the 1790’s. This particular pipe is shown in full colour in about a dozen French publications over thirty years.

Among the more common nineteenth century pipes we find items with Napoleonic scenes. Remarkable is a late figural of which the pipe bowl is shaped like a coffin, showing the body of the emperor. More traditional is a long monochrome pipe bowl with globular base showing a sitting Napoleon as commander overlooking his troops in the field. This item is also of interest because of the stem in buffalo horn that has right in the middle a bicorn under which the profile of Napoleon is visible.

The more typical so-called stummels from the Seita-collection illustrate the big differences in paintwork. Pictorial interesting is the painting of a naked woman, partly hidden behind a thin cloth, painted into the smallest details with great love. Simpler is a pipe with a name originating from a local French porcelain factory, produced on demand showing a colourful coach, the name of the coachman in gold along the bowl opening. These type of bowls painted on demand left the German porcelain factories by thousands, but a French version has not been found back till now. Characteristic are the thin walled bowl and the details that are much finer painted than we see by the German counterparts.

Wood as alternative material
The earliest German pipes are not easy to find. Nevertheless, the Seita possessed some remarkable examples. A work of fine details illustrates a hunting scene, the details are lightened up with real golden collars and willies. It is a question what the carver would have liked to say with these details. In contrast to this refined pipe is another one with six crudely carved faces in folk art style carved from an ordinary piece of tree wood. Not being fire resistant the bowl interior is lined with sheet metal on the inside. Round the bowl we see three human faces, a fourth is at the bottom, in the stem another two can be found. Also with this pipe, details are enlightened, now in red paint, while the eyes are laid in with black beads. A comparative pipe is made from cork-tree, is not so large and less amusing. Here, under a hat four faces can be found, each sharing the neighbours’ eyes, the stem is a natural twig.

The French played an important role in the development of the wooden pipe. That chapter of history can also be found in the Seita collection. Their interest was not focused upon the machine made French briar pipe, but mainly on the curios folk art pipes. So, no pieces made in series, but unicas carved by amateurs with the tongue between their teeth in their free evening hours. Primitive as well as amusing is a farmer's wife along the stem, the carver forgot to shape the bust while paying all attention to the woman’s wooden shoes. Other carvers got inspired by the naked body, like a woman along the stem, in style strongly resembling the paint work of Paul Gaugin.

Among our acquisitions we also find some interesting pipes made in series having uncommon shapes, a-typical for the French briar production. What about a pipe with the bowl shaped like a champagne bottle, placed on pewter wheels. Hilarious will also have been the tobacco pipe shaped like an early Peugeot, again completed with metal wheels, dated as early as 1904. Another curiosity is a table pipe, the bowl the head of a baboon. A flexible stem makes that the smoker receives his cool smoke in a comfortable way.

Pipes of odd materials
Next to smoking pipes of the typical materials as the above, every pipe collection shows some products of alternative materials. Pipes that made people astonish but often not the most comfortable instruments to smoke. Of high status is a pipe carved in ivory after a Dutch clay tobacco pipe adorned with festoons and flutes along the base. The stem consists of three parts that screw together, the last part ending in a mouthpiece with numerous buttons. The shield on the bowl was meant to carry the owner's initials, that were never engraved.

Another interesting pipe is made out of the tooth of a sperm whale, usually considered to be ivory. This pipe served for many years as a promotion picture for the Seita-museum for the obvious reason that the decoration shows a smoker with a large pipe. Another curiosity that was bought is the beak of an albatross, shot somewhere near Cape Horn before the middle of the nineteenth century. In the animal skull a wooden pipe bowl was mounted and for consuming the smoke, a hollow albatros bone was applied as stem.

Fancy pipes are made from blown glass. These were produced in the area of Liege in the middle of the nineteenth century, often decorated with fine lines in contrasting glass colour. Counterparts of these pipes were made near Bristol and show beautiful patterns like we know from the sixteenth century Venetian glass called latticino. These oversized pipes were specially meant to be hanged in the windows of tobacco shops.

A pipe made out of lava stone is not a common item either. This object was made in the 1830’s and shows a gorgon head, the mounting with a silver lid is decorated with a lion’s mask on the top. A comfortable pipe this item will not have been, the bowl is too heavy.

One of the most curious pipes from the Seita-collection is, as rumours say, carved from the upper leg bone of a child. Over the full length of the stem a lying figure is carved, the bowl shows a face that balances between a human head and a skull. This object should be made in Polynesia and illustrations can be traced back in many publications.

Pipes from dark Africa
Of Congo origin are two simple pipes that consist of a straight bamboo tube on which a black backed ceramic bowl is placed, secured by a string from breaking. The hollow bamboo is often filled with dried grass to serve as a filter for the tobacco smoke.

The culture of pipe smoking is the best expressed in a country like Cameroon, where the tobacco pipe is an important status item. Especially the figural pieces are much loved both locally and by collectors. A ceramic figural bowl is a representative example, showing a figure with a most attractive serene expression. Completely opposite on this item a bronze pipe bowl shows a series of masks is relief. This tobacco pipe bowl is made in the lost wax method and is especially attractive because of its age and the beautiful patina. A special feature of the skillful metal work is the geometrical decoration on the flat parts of the bowl and stem, inlayed with iron in the bronze.

World famous are the slave pipes made in iron of which the Seita possessed a beautiful set of six almost identical copies coming from the same maker. On the centre of gravity on the stem they have a copper decoration referring to the decorations on the Dutch export clay pipes. They belong to the most published pipes from their collection and are of special interest because they were supposed to be smoked by slave dealers.

One of the most desirable pipes from the Seita collection is made in wood and comes from the Ovimbundu tribe in Angola. The bowl is large and funnel shaped, on the base an unexpected carving marks the place where the stem comes out of the bowl. Remarkable are the three portrait masks in relief on the stem, on both sides showing two faces, one blank, all of them with the typical local tattoos.

Smoking in Asia
A remarkable pipe is a Turkish tsjibouc with the funnel shaped bowl placed on an flat dish. These typical Turkish pipes were made by millions in the old Ottoman empire, in red or black ceramic. This copy however is the first known that is made out of almost white backing clay, and it is unclear what persuaded the pipe maker to use that colour clay.

Closer to our region is a tsjibouc with a long stem decorated wit thousands of glass beads, the bead decoration from west Europe, the bowl from the Orient. The colourful stem almost dominates the silver bowl that is covered with bright blue enamel with gold elements. The stem ends in of real amber mouthpiece that is also typical for the area.

Simple but most attractive is a pipe from Korea, consisting of a long thin bamboo stem with on one side a metal pipe bowl, the other a metal mouthpiece. Often the bamboo is attractively decorated with paintwork or burnt geometrical patterns, in other examples the natural bamboo structure dominates. Also the metal work varies largely, from yellow to blank white and sometimes decorative enamel work was added. Although they were common in Korea at that time, most of them now have disappeared, while the market is now over flooded with copies.

Quite unexpected are a series of four pipes that originate from the same workshop where they were produced at the same time with slightly different shapes and decorations. The metal bowl and stem are still fixed with a piece of massive wood. In that way they were sold to the pipe dealers, that mounted them with a bamboo stem at the moment they were sold. It is quite unique that somewhere in the world these bowls were kept without ever have been mounted to a pipe.

Every collection of ethnographic material contains items that were on the market once and are nowadays seldom available. That is the case with pipes from Cambodia, cast in bronze that closely resemble the pipes from the Batak tribe in Sumatra. However, here the shape as well as the decoration show the typical refinements of the Asian continent, that we do not see with the Batak examples.

What was not bought
The three hundred items bought are precisely one tenth of the total offer in the three auctions. Our choice concentrated on objects that filled in gaps in our presentation. Next to that, various items complete encyclopedic collections. Particularly in the Paris auction we did not acquire items that fetched too high prices, which was the case with several items of folk art and ethnography. Other items were not bought because fellow collectors asked us not to bid. Altogether the recent purchase gives a representative idea of the pipe collection of the Seita museum. Next to that, it is a most welcome addition to what is already represented in our museum in Amsterdam.

Exhibition the Seita in Amsterdam
At the occasion of the acquisition of the Paris Seita collection, the Pijpenkabinet in Amsterdam exhibits in one large showcase the best items that were bought. The above mentioned forty objects will be on view together with some additional items in the back of our museum shop Smokiana from October 20 till December 5 2009 during our normal opening hours.

New publications on our website
Some new articles by our curator Don Duco appeared, of which the titles below are now on our website.

- De pijpen van het Scheldeterrein in Vlissingen, (Clay tobacco pipes from the former Schelde quarter in Flushing, the Netherlands, Amsterdam, 2009) is the find report of clay pipes from the area named Dokkershaven in Flushing, Sealand were large scale archaeological research has been done in one of the popular neighbourhoods of the town from the earliest building on the site till the twentieth century.

- Twee vroege tabakspijpen in de vorm van een schip, (Two early tobacco pipes shaped like a ship, Amsterdam, 2009) describes and discusses two archaeological pipes, one in wood, the other in pipe clay. Both are modelled in the shape of a Dutch ship which is for a smoking pipe quite unusual. The two pipes are also of great interest because they reflect the development of the Dutch ship in the early seventeenth century.

- Pijpvondsten aan het Bolwerk in Gouda, (Clay tobacco pipes from the Bolwerk quarter in Gouda, the Netherlands, Amsterdam, 2009) discusses the pipes found in Gouda when a part of the old city centre was demolished that is located near the former Potterspoort. It is for the first time that in Gouda large scale archaeological investigation took place and the finds could be studied and published. In this article rather unexpectedly the pipe finds can be interpreted in the line of the history of the Gouda pipe makers craft. Main conclusions are that in Gouda next to top quality products many products far below common quality standards were produced.

The link to these articles can be found in paragraph 19 of our website by clicking on the titles in the literature list in the museum section. The archaeological reports are included in the chapter on archaeology under paragraph 15. A good opportunity to browse on our website, also to discover the latest additions like some hundreds of new illustrations in Smokiana pipeshop.

Link of the month
In line with the French acquisitions we ask attention for a French site dedicated to the tobacco pipe. On www.fumeursdepipe.net the various menus present all sort of information on pipes and pipe smoking. Although partly copied from an unknown English website the page on Formes gives a nice facility to discover all sorts of pipe shapes derived from one particular shape. A nice and transparent site, although more additions in future will certainly make it better!

Special Offer
For those who like to change their briar pipe for an instrument from another material to experience a new way of smoking, here a special offer follows. From the comic character Lou Caddetou, a Breton person having a skinny face and a typical French cap, in the 1910’s a nice figural pipe was produced by an unknown French pipe maker. We can now only guess the popularity of that pipe at that time, but on a certain moment the sale was declining. The left over’s were sold, they ended up in the ware house of the Dutch firm Goedewaagen in Gouda, including the four parted bronze mould.

Not suitable for selling, the stock remained there for years and years till they were sold out in 1958 to make space in the factory to house the large scale production of ceramics. However, from this stock, for more than fifty years out of sight, we now offer smokers an original copy of an all white clay pipe to smoke brown themselves. What makes the pipe so special is the smooth white sherd that is highly porous like meerschaum. That quality ensures the absorption of moist during the smoke, resulting is a perfect taste. In other words: the ultimo dry smoker.

Do you like to try? As long as in stock, normally Euro 100,- including its original stem, now as a Santa Claus gift for only Euro 50,-.

Offer is valid till December 5 2009.

To order send an e-mail to info@pijpenkabinet.nl.

End of this twelfth 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 and Publicity Pijpenkabinet

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