Presentation § 7

The wonderful collections of the Pijpenkabinet Museum are treasured in an historic building to be found in the centre of Amsterdam. The canal house, so typical for Amsterdam, is built at the Prinsengracht around 1670. About 1800 the house was renovated, the windows were enlarged and the gable top was changed into a cornice. Authentic however are the original dark stone steps and the fan-light above the door, showing crossed arrows surrounded by gilt stars. The basement has its own entrance where you enter Smokiana pipeshop, the museum shop.

The visitor is admitted from the Prinsengracht and enters into an exhibition that emanates the atmosphere of the nineteenth century within the setting of a beautifully restored interior, including a stucco corridor with marble panelling, authentic beam ceilings with carved decorations, original colours etc. Visitors will experience the museum as the house of a collector, who brought together, with an assured and discriminatory judgement, a number of the finest examples of pipe smoking culture.

The building houses all elements that constitute the Dutch centre for pipe-smoking and -research.

• Smokiana pipehop in the basement
• Pijpenkabinet Museum at the main floor
• Library and documentation centre on the first floor

The library holds over 4,000 titles on smoking and pipes from all over the world in many different languages. On the first floor also the documentation centre can be found, with thousands of leaflets, photo's and other printed matter. The three upper floors are smaller scaled and in use by the manager of the museum and for storing.