Smokers' prints

Contemporary prints and works of art showing the use of tobacco can be regarded as an important source to study the culture of smoking. Many artists found inspiration in the habit of pipe smoking, while others have depicted the tobacco pipe as an object of fashion. From these artworks we can learn more about the custom of smoking in the different layers of society. More specifically these prints inform us about fashion in pipes resulting in a closer dating of a particular pipe.

Not only European but also tribes from other parts of the world have been registered while smoking. Less in number, these prints are of the same importance for the knowledge of pipes and the tribal smoking habit. It is obvious that in Africa, Asia and the Americas the pipe has been a most traditional object, not subject to substantial change.

A special section of prints does not show the smoker with his habit, but illustrates the smoke attributes themselves. Representative examples are the Racinet prints and the series of prints in the beautiful book Smokiana. Most rarely pipes are depicted and described.

 sitting smoker, etching, Cornelis Bega, the Netherlands, 1650-1680 amourous couple, etching, Cornelis Bega, the Netherlands, 1640-1665
pipe smoking woman, etching, Cornelis Bega, the Netherlands, 1640-1665 man with beer glass and pipe, mezzotint, the Netherlands, 1650-1680
medallion with a smoking farmer, engraving, the Netherlands, 1650-1690
allegory on smoking with behind the smoking man an angel with a bunch of clay pipes and a roll of tobacco, engraving, Jacob Cats, Middelburg, the Netherlands, 1619
two smokers round the table, engraving, Dennel after a painting of Breughel, Paris, 1750-1830
smoker with a short clay pipe, mezzotint, the Netherlands ?, 1710-1770
portrait after life of a smoker with a cutty, engraving by J.P. Lange after a painting of De Voys, the Netherlands, 1837
the theme drinking and smoking farmers, lithography, Weissenbruch after Adriaen van Ostade, the Netherlands, 1860-1880
pencil drawing in seventeenth century style with a man with pipe and pewter jug, the Netherlands, 1770-1840
group of smoking and drinking farmers, the Netherlands, 1670-1700 interior of a tavern, etching, Adriaen van Ostade, the Netherlands, 1670-1685
folk type of smoker enjoying his cutty, lithograph, Ludwig Löffler, Germany, 1840-1860
personification of the Dutch merchant: a man with typical hat, long jacket and a long Gouda pipe, engraving, Jacob Buijs, the Netherlands, 1770-1780
a nice portrait of how the Dutchman is seen using a long clay pipe, litho, Germany, 1820-1840
clubplayer with long clay tobacco pipe between his teenth, woodengraving, Henry Brown, the Netherlands, 1841
wealth versus poverty, dry needle, J.G. Will, the Netherlands, 1741
Illustrations on this page from the Pijpenkabinet collections
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