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Covers for pipes

For various reasons smokers in the past preferred to cover their pipe bowl. Firstly, a lid prevented ashes from falling out of the pipe, giving protection against fire. A second reason might be the wind protection, especially when smoked in the open air. Already from the late seventeenth century simple metal covers were used. Archaeological finds prove mechanically pressed lids, with a rim that was more or less flexible. A fine chain with ring around the pipe stem prevents loss.

More typical are covers made from bass- or iron wire, often made by prisoners. The round type is the most common, in the early days also a more pointed version was made. A remarkable example has a small brass lid in the centre of the cover, not really a practical thing but certainly special. In the latter part of the nineteenth century the cylindrical pipe cover became fashion, especially used for the German porcelain bowls. These covers are mechanically made and the wire is no longer wrought by hand.

For the rich smoker more luxurious lids come on market. A gilt silver lid shows three acorns on the rims that hold the cover in position on the pipe bowl. The Dutch silver lids underline the status of the long stemmed clay pipes from the late 18th century till about 1900. The covers were changed from pipe to pipe when the fragile stem got broken.

In the nineteenth century the pipe cover becomes an industrial product. A nice example for that is a mechanically pressed lid from an eight sided Chemnitz bowl. The piercing and the relief work were made with a machine.

The precious Mid-European pipes from carved wood and meerschaum have more luxurious lids. A nice example is a cover in the shape of a Roman helmet. The plain meerschaum bowl shows a great variety in lids. The lens shape and the globular shape are the most common ones, always with a hinge attached to silver mounting around the bowl. Sometimes they have been embellished with silversmith work or even precious stones.

In the twentieth century only a few briar pipes have a lid or windshield, simple but functional, as the Dunhill-pipes show. Cheap lids that fit to almost every pipe are now produced in large quantities in German factories.