Another successful night
3 November 2024
It remains a unique event, Museum Night Amsterdam, where tens of thousands of young people are mobilized to visit museums in a single evening. This year, for the first time in years, we had more than 500 visitors in one night. Thanks to the help of the volunteers, that was manageable. Even the distribution over the evening went naturally. All these people were introduced to a museum they did not know yet, including some young people who literally look out onto our facade from their student rooms!
PermalinkPipe bowls with turquoise
1 November 2024
In the coming months, we will be showing two exceptional bowls of water pipes in our much loved central display case. They are the crowning glory of the water pipe, but in great luxury. In a particularly refined way, an abundant number of cut turquoises have been set into both bowls, which lightens up the pipe bowl and in fact the whole hookah. This work is typical of Persia in the second half of the nineteenth century, although the use of turquoise goes back to an older tradition of the Quajar dynasty. These unique water pipe bowls will remain on display in the central display case until the end of the year.
PermalinkUpcoming Museum Night
28 October 2024
On Saturday evening, November 2, it's that time again. The Museum Night starts at seven o'clock in the evening. Our museum is one of the 70 locations that can be visited. Our regular program consists of the speed tours, this year supplemented with the possibility to hold pipes of different materials in your own hands. Feel the difference between clay, meerschaum and wood, and get an explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of each pipe. Finally, there is our presentation about the pipe finds from Suriname, on display for the first time in our own museum. By the way, the tickets for this event are unfortunately already sold out!
PermalinkDuco's manual available again
18 October 2024
The much-cited handbook on the Dutch clay pipe (1987) by Don Duco has been sold out since 2010. By a wonderful stroke of luck we found six copies, incorrectly stored more than ten years ago and still in new condition. For those who have been looking for this book for years, now is the chance to get their hands on it. The price is Euro 50. First ordered, first served!
Click here to order: https://pipeshop.nl/product/handboek-voor-nederlandse-kleipijp/
Birthday
1 October 2024
Today we celebrate our 55th birthday! Not with big activities, but just with birthday cake in the museum for everyone who comes by. The previous lustrum celebration was cancelled due to Corona, we only thought about this memorable birthday a few days ago. So, organizing a party was no longer an option. Can we agree that the next lustrum, our sixtieth birthday, can be celebrated in style?
PermalinkOld collection rediscovered
25 September 2024
Among collectors, the name Jean-Léo sounds like a legend from times gone by. Jean-Léo from Brussels was already active as a collector and dealer in clay pipes from the 1950s. Later, he published an annual sales catalogue with special clay pipes but also literature on the subject, including tobacciana. Besides, he kept a collection himself, which he rarely showed to anyone. After his death in 2017, no one knew what happened to this private collection. A few weeks ago, we were approached by his heiress. We bought the 850 pipes of this passionate enthusiast from her. Some of them were published in his famous book La pipe en terre française! Each pipe that adds information will be included in our reference collection, and as usual they will soon be available to view on our website as well. As a tribute to Jean-Léo who inspired so many!
PermalinkTouching acquisition
8 August 2024
This over a decimetre high pipe bowl arrived in our museum by post last week. It is a sympathetic object with a high cuddle factor. Made of meerschaum, it shows a well-behaved dog sitting up with a wide silver collar around its neck that separates the head from the body. Pay particular attention to the mini-lock in the centre of the band. By making air holes in the mouth, the pipe bowl became extra entertaining. When you gently blew into the stem, the dog emitted clouds of smoke. The fact that the smoker also found this an appropriate joke is proven by the darker colouring of the dog's head, caused by excessive passing of smoke. Subtle and simple in design and with a built-in joke, this must have been the favourite of a die-hard pipe smoker. For us, it is now a precious acquisition.
PermalinkThe Sleeping Beauty scenario
4 August 2024
Two colleagues from the heritage world have jointly published a book worth reading with the intriguing title: Handboek Ordelijk Vergeten (Handbook for Ordently Forgetting). In this book, they are protesting against the current practice in the museum world of ‘cleaning up’ collections by de-collecting: items from the depots are removed, sometimes transferred to other museums, but usually destroyed. Gerard Rooijakkers and Frank Bergevoet, both good friends, propose to store collections that are in danger of becoming unmanaged for a very long time and – so to speak – to forget them. Future generations can then decide for themselves whether they still want to exhibit the collection. At least everything will be preserved for a longer period of time. Interesting idea! If you want to know more or order the book, visit: https://www.erfgoedhuis-zh.nl/publicaties/handboek-ordelijk-vergeten
PermalinkManual in final phase
22 July 2024
The production of the new manual on the Dutch clay tobacco pipe that we reported on last July (see July 5, 2023) is nearing its end. More than two thousand photos have now been laid out so that they create a nice rhythm throughout the book. We are now working on the last references in this opus magnum before it can go to the printer. The exact date of publication is still open. Producing a voluminous book always proves to take more time.
PermalinkPipes of Mengelberg
20 July 2024
Willem Mengelberg, conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra for fifty years before the war, was also a dedicated pipe smoker. As a reminder of this illustrious conductor, his smoking chair still stands in the concert hall. Today a grandniece of Mengelberg presented us with a group of pipes that belonged to him. In addition to his beloved Peterson pipe, we chose the typical local shapes that were popular in Switzerland at the time. These are pipes that were kept in his house Chasa Mengelberg in Zuort, Switzerland. They are an appropriate addition to our twentieth-century briars, especially because with their Swiss twist they are unexpected and unique in design. Interestingly, these pipes were produced in Germany, Switzerland and France.
PermalinkEnd of French Period
14 July 2024
Clement Pressé's internship is over, so he returned to Northern France this week. Never before have we let an intern go with such reluctance. After more than two months of intensive work for our museum. A fast learner with an exceptionally practical insight who optimally developed into a popular guide for our museum. He also got to know the ins and outs of the museum. His greatest talent, however, is presenting to the public, also on video. That is why we have produced a series of films, subtitled by Clément, which can now be seen on our own YouTube channel. In this way, this intern remains virtually connected to the museum for a while. See: https://www.youtube.com/@amsterdampipemuseum5534
Permalink
Website now in French language
7 July 2024
Our website www.pipemuseum.nl was available in Dutch and English from the start. Other languages were a wish, but not a reality. This will change with our French-speaking intern Clément. He translated the main pages in a month, the rest will follow in the coming weeks. Fortunately, Clément is handy enough with computers to be able to upload the text to the right place within our own CMS. Hopefully this language switch will encourage French, Belgians, Canadians and many others to visit our museum.
PermalinkDutch porcelain paintings
6 July 2024
A commendable article by ceramics expert Adri van der Meulen appeared in the publication Vormen uit Vuur number 255 this month. It concerns porcelain objects painted in the Netherlands with special decors, mainly intended as occasional goods. The publication outlines the framework within which this happened, using numerous objects as examples. The stummels painted on request are also included, mostly with professions. Some of these come from our collection. The article is a new addition to the better understanding of these curious objects painted on request.
PermalinkCarved wooden tobacco box
1 July 2024
This elongated tobacco box has the same model as the traditional Dutch brass tobacco boxes from the second half of the eighteenth century. The form and design is also based on this. On the lid we see three medallions with figures surrounded by Louis XV motifs. The performance is a bit folksy, but done with panache. The outer edge shows a series of connected classical buildings. You would hope that they could be identified, but unfortunately that is not the case. What makes this well-preserved box so intriguing is that its meaning, known to everyone at the time, now appears to be a mystery. It is certain that such boxes were made in series, but where and when exactly is not even known. With extra attention in the coming months, we will hopefully learn a little more about the background of this attractive box.
PermalinkThirty years ago
26 June 2024
Exactly thirty years ago, on June 24, 1994, a series of four special pipes were presented in Gouda. The reason was that Gouda was declared cultural city of the Netherlands. Visual artist Guido Geelen was allowed to give his vision on the pipe city. He did so, among other things, with a series of four special design tobacco pipes in a limited edition. Completely unexpected designs of a plug and socket for the pipe, also a screwdriver and a light bulb. The pipes are made of ceramic with platinum glaze, the metallic shine radiates towards you. Unexpected fact: thirty years later the series are virtually impossible to find. By the way, it seems that only the curator of the then Pijpenkabinet set the fire to it. At least, his pipe has been smoked and is included in our collection. Not a discolored specimen, because the platinum glaze is impenetrable. It is certainly unique!
PermalinkLecture on smoking in Surinam
24 June 2024
During the Surinamese weeks of Stadsherstel Amsterdam (Urban Restauration Fund), Benedict Goes gives a lecture about pipe smoking in Suriname in colonial times. All this in response to a donation to our museum of a collection of Dutch clay pipes that were found in Suriname and some outer regions in the years 1950 to 1975. Our museum is planning to study this material to gain a new perspective on the export of the clay pipe and smoking in a remote corner of the world. The results will be published next year. The lecture reveals the first results of the project.
PermalinkNew digitization record
14 June 2024
Today we passed the number of 37,000 unique objects on our website. A new milestone of an ever-growing file of information. And this time it is a double milestone. At the same time the number of photos in the database has passed 190,000 unique images. This means that approximately five thousand photos have been added in the past year. Doesn't it show a never-ending work discipline to have the historical and current smoking pipe digitized?
PermalinkRoyal Society
13 June 2024
It often happens that groups of visitors come to our museum outside opening hours. Today it wasn't just any group of guests. The Royal Antiquarian Society, KOG for short, the oldest association in the field of art and culture in our country, held an excursion to get to know our museum better. Benedict gave a talk about the museum and the collection. Although the group was not as large as announced, the attention and interest was great.
PermalinkSurinamese Months
10 June 2024
Stadsherstel Amsterdam is now organizing the Surinamese Months for the fifth time in its own location, the Amstel Church. This draws particular attention to the subsidiary Stadsherstel Paramaribo. The theme this year is archaeology, which is why we were given the opportunity to participate. Our museum recently received a group of pipes from the estate of an enthusiastic collector. He lived in Suriname about fifty years ago, where he found pipe bowls just like at home in Holland! After his retirement, his collection came to the Netherlands, after which his daughters donated the pipes to our museum. We put together a modest exhibition about this special gift, now be seen in the Amstelkerk in Amsterdam. Free to visit until 7 July.
PermalinkGoedewaagen forever
25 May 2024
Every now and then we meet descendants of the Goedewaagen family. Not surprising, our museum has an extensive collection of pipes and tools from this once most important pipe factory in the Netherlands. This week we got a visit from Amy Solov, a direct descendant of the Goedewaagens from Gouda who moved to the States a century ago. They have always kept in touch with their Dutch cousins. So we regularly receive American guests who are still linked to the Dutch pipe history.
PermalinkSnuff bottles
16 May 2024
This week our collection has been enriched with more than a dozen snuff bottles from China. These are miniature bottles in which tobacco grinded into powder was carried. Characteristic of this phenomenon are the stoppers of these bottles to which a mini spoon is attached. In this way you can bring the tobacco powder to your nose and then sniff it. Many snuff bottles are not only intended as a vial, they also function as a status object and as a collector's item. The acquisitions clearly show this. The origin of these exotic bottles is extra interesting for our museum in Amsterdam. They come from the estate of the portrait painter Clemens Merkelbach van Enkhuizen, who had a well-stocked display case of them in his impressive house along the Keizersgracht.
PermalinkReinforcement from France
6 May 2024
Anyone who follows our social media has already seen it. Student Clément Pressé has settled on the Prinsengracht. Because of his love for the pipe and smoking, as a tourism student in Northern France, he chose our museum for his internship. An enterprising boy! He'll be making noise here for over two months. In addition to guided tours in French and English, he is involved in recruiting visitors and translating our website into French. He also learns about the functioning of a museum in many aspects. When he returns, he hopes to know the museum business from inside out.
PermalinkCannon fire
4 May 2024
We previously showed a pipe with a cannon in our central display case, which was admired by everyone. The pipe that will be on display in the coming weeks is equally prestigious. It is a large meerschaum bowl with a robust shell shape at the base. The quality of the pipe is made by the mounting in silver, especially the hinged cover. A miniature cannon has been designed on the top with a stack of bullets on both sides. When we open the lid, a second lid becomes visible with a special button. There we see a personal coat of arms and the portrait of the French king Louis Philippe. The chic stem is made of twisted buffalo horn alternated with ivory. Also note the curled snake that acts as a clamp spring, with ruby eyes. Curious about all that luxury? Come and admire!
PermalinkPersian silver hookah
23 April 2024
In France we acquired this miniature water pipe in silver. It shows a water reservoir with six panels connected to two stems, the central stem ends in a pipe bowl, the stem that runs diagonally is the stem to inhale the smoke. Everything about this mini shisha is characteristic of Persia, where they call it a qualian. The decoration shows panels in a beautiful rhythm. Detailed flowers with birds can be seen all around, alternating with a geometric motif against a worked background. This background against which the decoration stands out was obtained by hammering the silver with a mini hollow pipe. With a height of less than twelve centimeters, it is a small but fine object. And it rarely happens: the same week we acquired the object, it was photographed, described and placed in the permanent display in the museum between its larger brothers.
PermalinkLibrary refreshed
5 April 2024
Work on the website always continues. This applies to both expansion and improvement. This month is all about the literature section. All covers of the publications in our online library catalog will be pimped and reloaded in a higher resolution. With their brightened colours they now appear fresher. At the same time, we will have an automated system for loading these pictures. This action shows that technology is also constantly innovating. That's great for us behind the scenes, but ultimately it's about the result for the user on the web. Also that result will not remain invisible
PermalinkAn impressive Easter egg
31 March 2024
The egg that we exhibit around Easter is one of royal class. Firstly the size: 22 cm. high. Point two: silver mounting, even with a double band halfway that enables the top half to open as a lid. For those who do not realize it is a tobacco jar, made by the Dutch silversmith Jurriën Schiff, just before the turn of the last century. He used a real ostrich egg as the starting point for his unique tobacco pot. Mounting wondrous objects from nature is a tradition that dates back to the sixteenth century, when monarchs established a Kunstkammer or Cabinet of Curiosities with these types of rarities. This impressive unique piece can now be seen in the Amsterdam Pipe Museum.
PermalinkMuseum week starts
30 March 2024
Today the Dutch Museum Week 2024 starts, March 30, so lend your Museum Card to a friend, neighbor, your children or anyone you want. Then someone else can also experience how unexpected, fascinating or inspiring a visit to museums is. Recommend in the first place the Amsterdam Pipe Museum, which is in the best-rated top 10 in Tripadvisor!
PermalinkPre-announcement Museum Week
23 March 2024
Once again this year you can use someone else’s Museum Card to go to a museum of your choice. The Museum Card is a personal card, hence the portrait photo on it. But from March 30 to April 6 you can borrow someone else's card and visit museums for free. That is the campaign of Museum Week 2024. Make use of this temporally offer, also by lending your card to a friend. We hope that many visitors will then choose to visit the Amsterdam Pipe Museum.
PermalinkTobacco back on the shelf
12 March 2024
Good news for the pipe smoker well before spring. Pipe tobacco is back on the shelves in our museum shop. After we sold out the stock during the corona period, we have no longer purchased new tobacco. Now that clients to the museum shop is back on track, it is time to get our pipe tobacco range in order. According to the current rules: neatly in a locked cupboard. As a visitor you don't see the tobacco, but it is available! Don't hesitate to ask.
PermalinkBetter access to web articles
21 February 2024
No matter how extensive the information on our website is, search ability is not always optimal. This has changed in recent weeks. Under the 'Further reading' tab you will find more than 180 well-illustrated articles about many aspects of our collection. These are now accessible with a 'theme' search field. When you click, a drop-down list will appear with the included themes that can be selected. This will provide welcome assistance to users with a focused interest in, for example, Gouda, ethnography or countless other topics.
PermalinkValentine's Day
14 February 2024
On Valentine's Day you think of your loved one, that is a long tradition. This intimate hug was painted on a porcelain pipe bowl for this occasion in Germany as early as the nineteenth century. Isn't it touching, this old couple who are still in love even after half a century together? As you see, our collection has a suitable pipe for every occasion!
PermalinkHandmade with a diamond
10 February 2024
We visited Pierre-G. Müller as early as the 1980s in his beautiful jewelry shop in Geneva. There we admired his ultimate free hand briars, unique large format pieces created with an incredible amount of love and craftsmanship. A picture book was even published about his special creations. And when the carefully selected briar, often the exclusive plateau wood, showed a flaw, Pierre set a diamond in it without hesitation! But jeweler-pipier Müller had more artistic sides. For example, he designed the logo of the Académie Internationale de la Pipe, of which he was a founding member. As an ambassador of the pipe, he was a popular and beloved visitor at countless meetings for pipe smokers. Today we received the sad news of his decease, albeit at a very old age. We sympathize with his family in Switzerland and Austria.
PermalinkChinese design
19 January 2024
Working in briar has now become an international tradition. Two tobacco pipes from the Chinese maker Xu Hai prove this. Trained as a calligrapher and visual artist, this pipe smoker developed briar pipes in his own style. It is said to be inspired by the pipes of the famous Dane Ivarsson, but those who can freely associate can also distinguish other influences. Both examples depicted here were given to our museum as a gift by a pipe enthusiast from South China. A welcome addition to our collection of modern briars and a rare variation on the traditional Chinese smoking pipes here.
PermalinkSmoking pipes from a true pipe enthusiast
4 January 2024
The year is only a few days old and the first acquisitions have already been brought in. This is an important donation of a series of high-quality tobacco pipes that were smoked between 1980 and 2020 by a Rotterdam pipe enthusiast. The pipes were purchased over a period of twenty years and represent a well-considered choice from what quality pipes were available at the time. This provides a wonderful overview of major brands, which shift from classic English and Danish in the 1980s to more refined Italian. The smoker clearly had a preference for straight grains, aesthetically the most beautiful and finest versions of optimal craftsmanship. Contemporary smoking is a chapter that we must now collect, experience shows that many consumables are thrown away faster than they deserve.
PermalinkSeason's Greetings
23 December 2023
With some vintage tobacco pipes we wish you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year !
These new old stock pipes are typical for the 1980’s, made by Butz-Choquin, Chacom and Georg Jensen. They bring bright colour in the dark days of December.
PermalinkAcquisition from far away
22 December 2023
This rare tobacco pipe will be the last to be added to the collection this year. The object is carved from ironwood with the style characteristics of the Marquis Archipelago in the South Pacific. Due to its material and intriguing carving of the three portraits around the pipe bowl, it is a magnificent example of local art from a remote region. In addition, the pipe has a special pedigree. For more than thirty years it was part of the collection of a traveling artist couple in Geneva who sailed to the islands themselves. Their house full of curiosities inspired many artists. Now it is undoubtedly the object in our collection that has made the longest journey to finally reach Amsterdam.
PermalinkArtificial Intelligence
16 December 2023
Curious about the broad discussion over Artificial Intelligence, we decided to ask for the ultimate pipe. By asking four times more beautiful and even more decorative, we got these results, which we did not want to withhold from the reader of our news items. It is clear: for AI, beauty mainly lies in the decorations, which are certainly not functional. Subtle design is quickly exchanged for gemstones, sparkles and other excesses that the conservative pipe smoker will not easily choose. Nevertheless, enjoy looking at the results.
PermalinkArticle about pipe stoppers
10 December 2023
The acquisition of a large collection of pipe stoppers from a passionate collector last summer prompted us to study this subject again. The result is now ready, just before the end of the year: an extensive article about this handy object that not only charmed pipe smokers but also stimulated collectors for generations. Read the story about the pipe stopper on our website and learn more about the great popularity of that trivial object. Follow the link: article-pipe-stoppers
PermalinkSnuff curiosities on sale
5 December 2023
The auction of the historic British American Tobacco Collection of Tobacco Containers took place in London today. This concerns an exclusive group of snuff jars and related objects, each object of museum quality and high artistic value. In the 1980s it was the BAT, a tobacco multinational, that created this collection. Objects only appeared sporadically at authoritative exhibitions, from London to Vienna. The collection has never been shown again in the last twenty years and has therefore been forgotten. Due to the auction, the objects will now be lost for years, spread all over the world. Once again a tobacco collection has been 'broken'.
PermalinkNobel tobacco box
17 November 2023
This majestic tobacco box was recently added to our collection. This is a late eighteenth-century brass box with extensive engravings on all sides. While most boxes put the focus on the lid, this is not the case here: the well-filled bottom is as extensively engraved as the top. Not only that, even along the sides text is applied. The box is dedicated to the Orange tree and was a typical article for the late eighteenth century Orangist who underlines and applauds his sympathy for the stadtholder family with the Oranjeboom. Exceptionally, this vulnerable box is still in beautiful condition, which greatly improves readability of the political commitment.
PermalinkDream pipe in center display case
6 November 2023
Objects that are placed the central table display case in our museum are icons, visually attractive pieces that are more than worth a second look. This will also be the case for the next three months. However, this time we only show a small part of the object in question in this news item. Anyone who wants to know more is welcome to come along and hear the exceptional story behind this acquisition of the year. As thrilled as Neander was about this object in 1622, we are now with this special item. An object that is also impressive in size, so it does not fit in its entirety in the display case, but of course we show the major part!
PermalinkSuccessful as usual
5 November 2023
Museum Night 2023 was a beautiful evening despite the threat of dark clouds and heavy rain. To everyone's surprise it remained dry, so there was a coming and going of visitors, mainly young people and quite a few expats. We welcomed more than 430 guests, who were amazed by the freshly dried tobacco leaves imported from the Wervik region and enjoyed an accompanying Belgian smokey beer.
PermalinkThe table is set
3 November 2023
Tonight is the final preparations for Museum Night 2023. Our theme is the smell of tobacco. For this purpose we have purchased three cubic meters of freshly fermented tobacco, which will amaze every visitor with its specific and strong scent. The miracle herb is displayed in whole leaves on the smoking table in our museum, something you never see! But even more: what an arome! Come by tomorrow evening and you will get to know the museum in a unique way: tobacco pipes from all over the world, combined with the powerful smell of tobacco.
PermalinkNew life on Instagram
22 October 2023
Our guide Elisa Pettoello, who has been an active tour guide since this summer, has taken care of our Instagram account. That was desperately needed because the discipline to keep up with the socials was constantly lacking. New posts now come once or twice a week. For example, we congratulated Amsterdam and the people of Amsterdam on their city anniversary (748 years) with an alternative flag, participated in events and of course we regularly show objects from our broadly oriented collection. Take a look at our Insta or FB page and follow us! https://www.facebook.com/AmsterdamPipeMuseum/
https://www.instagram.com/amsterdampipemuseum/
Museum Night Amsterdam 2023
16 October 2023
Museum Night Amsterdam will take place again on Saturday 4th November, the event that brings together 30,000 young Amsterdammers to get to know all the museums and many other cultural institutions during a long night. Of course the Amsterdam Pipe Museum will participate again. For the program and locations, visit: https://museumnacht.amsterdam/museum Unfortunately, tickets are already sold out!
PermalinkGreater name recognition
14 October 2023
The second Saturday of October is traditionally the day for the Amsterdam City Walk, a walking tour with 12,000 participants. This tour follows the street in front of our museum. With a clear sign on the facade, this means that all these walkers now know the existence of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. Not all of them will come to see it, but they will certainly talk about it.
PermalinkSmoking evenings discontinued
8 September 2023
Anti-smoking is increasingly taking hold of the Netherlands. New legislation now makes it impossible to hold smoking evenings without breaking the law. As an attraction of our museum, the smoking evening has always had a peaceful character, helping novice pipe smokers in particular to get started in the ceremonial of stopping and enjoying pipe smoking. But you can also see it as promoting smoking. That is no longer possible and no longer allowed either. We look back with nostalgia on the countless pleasant evenings that people of all denominations gathered to peacefully (learn to) smoke a pipe.
PermalinkCollection of pipe stoppers
15 August 2023
Dutch smokers have used a pipe cleaner for centuries to empty the pipe after smoking. In England, the pipe stopper is a more common implement to press the tobacco in the pipe. Our collection has recently been enlarged with a significant group of such stoppers. Most of these objects were purchased in the English antique trade, but ended up in a French collection for many years. If you search for the word pipe stopper in our database, you will get a nice impression of the extension of this unexpected sub-collection. Follow this link: https://pipemuseum.nl/pipestopper
PermalinkArticle in Panorama
12 August 2023
The well-known weekly Panorama, legendary for its focus on crime, entertainment and sports is not exactly known as a magazine for art and culture. That is why it is all the more an honor that they published an article about the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. It has become an appetizer for the would-be museum visitor who would expect that an old smoking pipe is not appealing. The opposite is true, as is proven by author Rens Nijholt, who has provided his story with tasty photos by Mischa de Muynck. See for yourself in Panorama number 31, 2023 page 22 and following.
PermalinkA house full of tobacco
5 August 2023
As of today, a striking tobacco jar that is not immediately recognizable as such will take center stage in our museum hall. It is a Delft blue-painted house with a stepped gable representing a miniature tobacco shop. This was a sought-after object for late nineteenth-century smokers who loved the old Dutch style. It is reminiscent of the small-scale tobacco shop that could be found in many streets, but also of the Frisian petty bourgeoisie of copying this in miniature. Apart from its show-off function, it was also an object of hospitality. By lifting the roof of the house you find the fragrant Frisian baai tobacco. Just grab some tobacco and pack your pipe, not only the for the master of the house, his grown sons but especially for their guests....
PermalinkAgain thousands further!
22 July 2023
It has been quite some time since we reported a milestone in our photo collection on the web. In July 2020, the counter was still at 170,000 unique images. This week we passed the number of 185,000 different photos. This equates to an average of five thousand new additions per year. A wonderful score that fits in a time of ongoing digitization. Each object with multiple photos, including close-ups, altogether a special result. Will the collection be perfectly registered at 200,000 photos? We assume that, but for now... just keep on working.
PermalinkBiemans Collection
16 July 2023
The Netherlands has many more pipe collections than we think. As an example, we recently came across the collection of Bert Biemans from Beek en Donk in Brabant. This omnivore collected pipes from all over the world and set up a museum behind his house where the pipes stood and hung criss-cross together, next to an extensive collection of elephants. But Biemans passed away and the family looked for a new home. This is how part of the collection ended up in our museum. There it complements the category of curious European folkloric pipes available in the 1970s to 1990s, in our museum a collection field somewhat neglected.
PermalinkNew handbook
5 July 2023
Curator Don Duco has been working on the design of his long-awaited handbook on the Dutch clay pipe since January this year. The predecessor of that book was awarded in 1988 by the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. A new edition should have been published a long time ago, but it never happened. The text has now been updated and the first chapters are laid out. The layout, in particular, turns out to be a painstaking job, it still requires all the attention for a few months to come. We'll see when it's on the market. Long awaited, it seems to be coming soon!
PermalinkSlavery Memorial
1 July 2023
Tobacco as a commodity has been associated with the Blackamoor or Moriaan in Dutch for centuries. Today we commemorate and celebrate the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery. At least for the Netherlands, other countries were years ahead of us, some even behind. Our collection also contains numerous objects depicting the plantation slave. This image was very common on tobacco packaging, but also as an shop front statue as shown here. In previous centuries every passer-by knew when he saw such a black boy above the shop door, that it was a tobacco shop. Today we wouldn't do that anymore. These and other examples are still visible in our museum as a reminder of other times.
PermalinkGeographical troubles
25 June 2023
Over the past two weeks, intensive work has been done behind the scenes to improve and supplement the geographical classification in our collection database. This database has been in existence for more than fifteen years. In 2008 it was not so easy to find out in which region a country is located, certainly not in Africa and Asia, but even in Europe. Wikipedia now provides clear overviews. We noticed that the classification of countries in, for example, East or Central Africa was not always correctly noted. This is now standardized and in addition countless tribes can even be pinpointed in a specific province. All this seems so logical, but it turned out to be quite a round of checks with numerous changes. Anyway, if you still find a questionable location, we'd like to hear about it on the way to better!
PermalinkAmsterdam or Amazing?
18 June 2023
Internally we sometimes use APM as an abbreviation for the Amsterdam Pipe Museum, comfortably short and yet clear. Although, if you read the reviews on Google and Tripadvisor, you might read APM differently. The adjectives that visitors use for our museum are many: delightful, enchanting, interesting, but definitely the most read is amazing. So why not the Amazing Pipe Museum? In any case, it is obvious that every visitor is amazed by the incredible variety in the collection, the artistry in design and the multitude of shapes all over the world. We will from now on emphasize this aspect of the collection in our PR and communication.
PermalinkTheme day Vlaardingen
9 June 2023
Jan Anderson from Vlaardingen, now 87 years old, has collected a total of about 150,000 objects in his museum. This museum is a foundation, but without Jan's driving force its survival seems doubtful. Or not? An agreement has now been made with the Reinwardt Academy for Heritage Studies, the National Cultural Heritage Agency and Heritage South Holland ensuring that the collection will be stored and preserved in its own depot building. But closed to the public. In the meantime, systems keep track of how the indoor climate, mold, insects and other factors evolve and affect the collection. This depot will only be opened again after 20 or 30 years. Similar to Sleeping Beauty who is kissed awake after a hundred years. Will the collection still be as fresh as the princess from the fairy tale? In order to discuss this theme with museum colleagues, a symposium was held in Vlaardingen, which we obviously wanted to attend. This scenario would not be our first choice for our collection.
PermalinkVintage online
28 May 2023
The range of vintage pipes in the sales department also reached the webshop this week. Our webshop, which can be found at the top right of the Homepage, is mainly important for the sale of books and the popular double-walled ceramic pipes. But there is also a limited selection of briar pipes to promote the well-known brands. We now also offer vintage pipes for the real enthusiast: used pipes with special shapes, which are attractive to certain customers also – or sometimes precisely – because they have already been broken in. The vintage pipe is now a separate section in the webshop. Look at www.pipemuseum.nl or directly at pipeshop.nl.
PermalinkAcquisition from dark Africa
20 May 2023
Recently we were able to take over some remarkable African tobacco pipes from a long-standing collection in Utrecht. The depicted creation is the most highly decorated of these acquisitions. With its convex shape referring to the gourd and its two figures, the back of which functions as a stem to draw the smoke, this is a fancy design full of fantasy. The maker comes from the Luba people from the Kasai province in Congo-Kinshasa, to be precise the sub-tribe Luba-Hemba. This can be seen in tribal characteristics such as the facial features and headgear. As an oddity, it is typically an article that did better on the souvenir market than among the local smokers. Yet this pipe was a temporary object that was soon exchanged for new creations. Not only because of the complicated design, but especially because of the laborious production method, the production has remained limited. Thanks to these ever-innovative designs, tradition gradually changes and the chain of remarkable creations continues to grow.
PermalinkStudent smokers club La Pipe
12 May 2023
Earlier we got a visit from the student fraternity La Pipe, affiliated with the higher hotel school in The Hague. Today another delegation from this student smokers club came by. The young members were somewhat elated, with wig and moustache. Their mission was to offer a certificate with which they want to convey that young pipe smokers also feel connected to our museum. A kind gesture that we gladly accepted. We are curious how this group of young pipe smokers will hold up in the coming years.
PermalinkTabacology in Vlaardingen
30 April 2023
Today is on the program a visit to the museum of Jan Anderson in Vlaardingen. The reason is the recent inventory of the collection of tobacco curiosities or tabacology there. We couldn't contain our curiosity to see how this subset - Anderson owns over a hundred collections on different themes! - was worked out. We were hospitably received by the collector himself. Nine photo volumes show the objects including a brief description, volume 10 and 11 are the summary. Students of the Reinwardt Academy and local volunteers helped with this task. Some objects are displayed in the museum, we have seen another part in the reserves. In short, an exciting day for us!
PermalinkSpotlight on pipe makers tokens
21 April 2023
The purchase of a series of payment tokens from Gouda pipe factories last autumn was reason to focus on these objects for a new study. The result is an extensive article that shows the variety of tokens over three centuries. No matter how simple these clay tokens often look, there is a lot more to them. For the collector it is great to browse through the pictures, but more importantly the last part of the article also makes you think about its use in the pipe factories at the time. Numerous aspects of its use are still shrouded in mystery, but the main point has been laid down in this article.
PermalinkMuseum Week for everyone
27 March 2023
The annual Museum Week starts on Saturday 1 April. If you have a museum card, you can visit a museum every day. But if you don't have a museum card, this is your chance! Ask family or friends who has a museum card and borrow it for a week. During Museum Week we are extra hospitable and we do not check whether you are the person in the photo on the card. So take your grandmother's or granddaughter's card and head out. Visit the museums you always had on your bucket list, such as the Amsterdam Pipe Museum.
PermalinkDouwe Egberts twenty years ago
25 March 2023
Until 2003 there was a company museum on the factory site of the Douwe Egberts factory in Utrecht dedicated to their products: coffee, tea and tobacco. However, the company decided to liquidate this exhibition and offered our museum and several other museums the unique opportunity to take over parts of the collection. This transfer took place on March 25, 2003. No less than 366 pipes and countless tabacological objects ended up in a new museum setting. An important part of this transfer can still be seen in the permanent presentation of our museum. Even twenty years later, like the Naskapi pipe from eastern Canada depicted here.
PermalinkKnowledge in motion
22 March 2023
Coincidence or not, the guild token that was exhibited in Bonn in recent months has acquired a new dimension. We received the grateful tip from an observant web visitor that this medal is incorrectly described. According to current information, it would be a membership sign of the tobacco merchant’s guild of Middelburg. The email we received about this revealed that there has been a guild in Aardenburg, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. Neatly with references to numismatic literature, it can be shown that our medal comes from there. The data is therefore quickly adjusted in our database. A good example of crowd-sourcing, knowledge added by the public. If you also discover inaccuracies in our database, please let us know. This is how our knowledge advances.
PermalinkLa ronde Bretonne
20 March 2023
The content of the central honorary showcase in the Amsterdam Pipe Museum changes regularly. After the impressive six Kloben from Ulm, it is now the turn of one of the most cheerful pipes in our collection. It is a striking and large meerschaum pipe with carved figures in a wide circle around the pipe bowl. Look closely and you'll see happy families with children on their laps, some playing musical instruments, others singing, their legs dangling over the edge they're sitting on. Everyone is dressed in traditional Breton costume, hence the melodious name for this pipe: La Ronde Bretonne. The maker is the Parisian meerschaum carver Louis Lavisse, son-in-law of the famous Goltsche family. Come by yourself to admire this unique piece in real life!
PermalinkLoans Bonn back
28 February 2023
Today, colleagues from the Landesmuseum Bonn returned our loans for the Augenlust exhibition. For several months, Dutch still lifes from the Golden Age were brought together with real objects that can be seen in the paintings. Among ten other items is a fine quality clay pipe of 45 centimetres in length from our collection. Plus a tobacco wrapper printed in woodcut, which can also be seen in the painting. Even museums from abroad come to the Amsterdam Pipe Museum for these kinds of rare objects.
PermalinkFirst acquisition 2023
22 January 2023
Every year it is a surprise: which objects will be added to the collection? This year, the first entry is not a pipe but a tobacco pouch typical of German culture. Where the Dutchman carries a brass tobacco box, the German uses a fabric pouch. Such bags are often embroidered with appropriate depictions, such as a few pipes and a tobacco pouch executed here in fine cross stitches. The back is less important and gets a flower bouquet. Special about this object is the beautiful state of preservation, especially when we consider that the object is more than a century and a half old. Finally, an unimportant detail: this tobacco bag received a nice collection number, namely APM 30.000.
PermalinkHappy New Year
22 December 2022
It was usual for previous generations to present cigarettes as a gift at Christmas. Large packages with an appropriate print were made, such as this box of Amsterdam-made Turkish cigarettes from the 1950s. Nowadays, of course, that is no longer a habit, but as a museum piece from the collection of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum, it reflects this era. We wish everyone happy holidays and a prosperous New Year!
PermalinkExtremely trunk-shaped pipe bowl
12 December 2022
Fresh from France, this wonderful clay pipe was recently added to our collection. Browned by smoking, it looks like a wooden pipe, as the seller assumed. We know better, it is pipe clay that became permeated with nicotine through smoking resulting in a beautiful patina. What immediately stands out is the shape of this tobacco pipe, like a trunk. In the 1830s such a shape was highly fashionable, but today we look at it with some surprise. Since this model was produced exclusively in France, it is extremely difficult to find a copy in perfect condition, but we have now managed to do so! A rare and beautiful addition to our collection.
PermalinkUpgrading sub-collection of archaeological finds
24 November 2022
More than a month ago we announced the purchase of a collection of archaeological finds from Gouda. Meanwhile, the research of this material continued unabated. It turns out that this group contains numerous new specimen. We also pay attention to quality improvement. The above three pipe bowls are an example of this: vague marks or damaged bowls can be exchanged for better ones. Partly interesting because the location of each of the finds have been carefully noted. In this way, our reference collection is not only becoming more complete, but also improving. If you still have clay pipe finds at home that you never look at again, consider donating them to our museum so that you can make a contribution yourself.
PermalinkMuseum Night a success
7 November 2022
Last Museum Night was a success as usual. As every year, the museum is expected to have a theme or special program for the visitor. This year we were able to borrow a perfect replica from the Van Gogh Museum: Vincent's bedroom in Arles. It is known that he often smoked his pipe there, he also painted the chair separately with his beloved pipe on the seat. Now this large painting served as a backdrop for a photo shoot. This produced unexpected pictures, especially because young people no longer have a clue how to hold a pipe. In any case, these hilarious moments created a relaxed atmosphere with many visitors. More than 330 people visited our museum during this evening.
PermalinkMuseum Night 2022
4 November 2022
Museums devise an annual event to add extra luster to the Amsterdam Museum Night. Some don't get any further than hiring a DJ. The Amsterdam Pipe Museum is the place for a special photo shoot. You can imagine yourself with a selfie or photo in Vincent van Gogh's bedroom. We borrowed the famous painting of the room in the Yellow House in Arles from the Van Gogh Museum. With a choice of pipes as Vincent liked to smoke them himself, you can portray yourself with the painting as the background. That produces a unique picture!
PermalinkReservation Museum Night
26 October 2022
Museum Night Amsterdam will take place this year on Saturday 5 November. Ticket sales will now start, exclusively online as it should be in these times. Anyone familiar with the Museum Night phenomenon knows that the 33,000 tickets are sold out in no time. The Amsterdam Pipe Museum is one of 60 locations this year. So be quick to get a ticket in order to admire a painting by Van Gogh as a special attraction and have yourself portrayed with a pipe in the style of the master painter.
PermalinkPortal enlarged with new photos
24 October 2022
For a long time it was silent about our initiative of the www.pipeportal.eu, the website in which the collections of several museums in the world can be viewed and searched as a whole. But today there is news: a museum collection has been added. And not just any one, a collection of world fame, but still unknown. The municipal museum of Saint-Omer in France has, hidden and unpublished, a unique collection of pipes. The factory showroom of the Duméril company was preserved after its closure in 1884 and was donated to the local museum in 1909. For the first time, these pipes are now widely presented. We have taken thousands of photos of these figural pipes and are now creating more awareness. More than 800 of the total of 1700 pipes are now in the portal. Come and see!
PermalinkMuseum depot shop has come to an end
18 October 2022
In recent years, we have actively supported the Museum Depot Shop initiative by contributing all kinds of objects that did not fit in our museum. In doing so we have created physical space but also obtained a budget for new purchases. Unfortunately, the Museum Depot Shop announces today that it has to close due to bankruptcy. That is a major blow for us, because the sales of the past few months still had to be settled. It is a pity that from this special initiative our foundation is now left with a sour aftertaste.
PermalinkAcquired collection of archaeological finds
14 October 2022
It doesn't happen that often anymore that something comes on the market in the field of excavated clay pipes. Logical, parceling of land for new construction rarely takes place and digging for pipes is prohibited in many cities. It is therefore gratifying that we were able to purchase a collection of more than a thousand excavated pipes from a Gouda digger who was very active in the 1980s. Today the material has been moved to our storage. The finds will be checked in the coming weeks, but it is already certain that many new specimens will be included in our reference collection.
PermalinkLooking back to 500 years of the discovery of America and tobacco
9 October 2022
For now a little bit of nostalgia. Today, October 9, it is exactly thirty years ago that the largest exhibition on smoking ever opened in the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam. With generous sponsorship from the tobacco industry, yes that was just possible at the time, 500 years of tobacco culture opened. For the record: 1992 was exactly 500 years after the discovery by Columbus. Without a doubt the most beautiful tobacco and smoking exhibition ever held in the Netherlands. Even at that time our museum provided a large number of loans. It became the last exhibition in which smoking still seemed to have a positive aspect. The world has now changed, tobacco use now only has a bad smell. This is also noticeable in the museums: exhibitions on this theme hardly occur anymore.
PermalinkUnique stoneware pipe in auction
8 October 2022
Today, Metz auction house in Heidelberg is auctioning one of the rarest tobacco pipes imaginable and perhaps also the most expensive. It is a pipe of so-called Böttgersteinzeug made in the year 1712, entirely according to the shape of the Gouda quality pipe of that time. This pipe is the link between the Gouda clay pipe and the start of the famous porcelain factory in Meissen. It is unique that a porcelain factory in the making relies so heavily on the merits of the Gouda pipe. With a estimated price of no less than 40,000 euros, this special object remains out of reach for most enthusiasts.
PermalinkThe drawing lesson now in the press
27 September 2022
June this year, our museum was the venue for an extraordinary drawing lesson. Amateur painters became skilled in drawing with silver point when copying pipes from our collection. The results will be shown in an exhibition in the coming months. We show the original pipes with the sketches and drawings so that you as a visitor can admire the interpretation of the artists. A press release to announce our mini-exhibition has now been sent out. We hope for some extra visitors in the near future!
PermalinkBonn exhibits still life objects
22 September 2022
Museums know where to find our collection, especially thanks to our online collection database. This was recently proven by the Landesmuseum Bonn. There will be an exhibition of Dutch still lifes from the Golden Age, where the real objects that have been painted will also be shown. For a still life with a pipe, we have not only lent a Gouda pipe, but also framing objects that represent the pipe makers' craft and the tobacco trade in the seventeenth century. There is also a tobacco wrapper and a pipe mould to show how the clay pipe is made. The exhibition “Augenlust? Niederländische Stillleben im Detail” will remain on display until February 19, 2023.
PermalinkFrench pipes in the picture
28 July 2022
This week our camera is in the depot of Musée Sandelin in the northern French city of Saint-Omer. Stationed there, we are working on an inventory of the famous collection of pipes belonging to the descendants of the Duméril company. This material was bequeathed to the museum in 1909 and since then hardly anything has been done with it. That's a shame because the designs of these pipes are phenomenal, and on top of that the collection itself is really extensive. If all goes well, we will soon publish the most interesting part of this sub collection on our site www.pipeportal.eu. In doing so we hope that this special group will be rescued from oblivion.
PermalinkUlmer Kloben
15 July 2022
This week, the changing display case in the centre of the museum room is filled with a group of six Ulmer Kloben. These are pipes that have been added to our collection relatively recently, but have not yet been seen by anyone. They come from a renowned German collection. What binds the pipes, in addition to the similarity in shape, is the beautiful red-brown burr walnut wood and the impressive decoration with silver fittings in relief. At the time, they were the status of the proud owners who flaunted them on Sundays and holidays. That custom has now passed for a century and they have become full-fledged museum pieces. Come and have a look and convince yourself of its unexpected beauty.
PermalinkPipes from Ouagadougou
12 July 2022
An interesting group of pipes has been added to the collection this week. They were bought in 1978 by a Dutch engineer in Ouagadougou in Upper Volta. These are common pipes from that area, purchased at the time at the local antique market, the marché des antiguetés. Pictured is one of the specimens made of local clay with kneaded nubs all around, covered with a matte-gloss reddish engobe. With a bowl height of almost nine centimeters, this is the largest pipe in the series. After more than forty years, the pipes have now been handed over to the museum, fortunately with the provenance details.
PermalinkClosed for promotion
7 July 2022
Antoon Ott, lawyer and art historian, but also chairman of the Pijpenkabinet Foundation, will get his PhD title today in the Jacobijnerkerk in Leeuwarden. His historical dissertation is a biography of the twentieth-century collector Nanne Ottema, who fought for the preservation of Frisian culture during his lifetime. The commercial edition, which is available from now on, promises to be a wonderful reading book for those interested in collecting and the ups and downs of Dutch museums. Today our museum is closed due to the promotion, from tomorrow we will talk about Mr.dr. Antoon Ott.
PermalinkRetrospect exhibition House of Orange
18 June 2022
Today it is exactly thirty years ago that the exhibition “I smoke Orange” opened in National Museum Palace Het Loo. This happened simultaneously with the publication of the book The Tobacco Pipe as Orange Propaganda. It was the start of a successful tour along four Dutch, a Belgian and a German museum. Amazing as it sounds, that was also the last time the Dutch clay pipe was in the spotlight so widely. More than 80,000 visitors passed through Museum Het Loo alone. The exhibitions are over, but the book on the timeless subject of the House of Orange has always remained a bestseller and is still available.
PermalinkPresentation of the research results
13 June 2022
Since October 2021, our ambassador Bart Bemelmans has been on the road to speak to key figures in the field in order to develop a future vision for our museum, rich in opportunities and possibilities. Tonight he will reveal his results. Naturally, both the board and the staff are present. At this point when we have to renew the fame of the museum and to intensify the visitor flow again, it is especially important that we make the right choices. It's about keeping what's good and changing what needs innovation. The latter option certainly has several flavors. We are curious about his findings.
PermalinkThe museum as drawing room
8 June 2022
Today we received a special visitors group in our museum. The Amsterdam Sunday Painters made use of the impressive main chamber of our museum for a drawing lesson on location. They were armed with a so-called silver point and specially prepared paper. Drawing with silver point - a pen made of pure silver - is a technique that has been used for finely shaded drawings since the sixteenth century. Ideally suited for drawing our pipes with their details and varied texture. A special experience for us, a great lesson for the artists.
PermalinkA unique snuff jar acquired
17 May 2022
This week we purchased a majestic snuff jar of Amsterdam origin at the De Zwaan auction. In a Delft blue palette, this Delft pot shows the Waag building (Weight House) as it stood on Amsterdam's Dam for centuries, until the substantial building was demolished around 1820. Special about this jar is that it is one of a series of which we already had a copy in our collection, namely number 16; number 9 has now been added. It is not the intention to complete the series, but twins are certainly more impressive than a single pot. Moreover, we learn from the comparison with this acquisition that the Delft pottery De Bloempot was extremely industrial. The differences between the two jars are minimal. Especially when we look at the weight, which only differs by 8 grams! In addition, we see minimal painting variations that emphasize the handiwork. Both tobacco jars are now displayed in the museum.
PermalinkPost-corona time
21 April 2022
Although the museum has been open for quite some time, very little is happening. While the lock-downs have been lifted, the visit to the museum is still not forthcoming. It is known that we mainly attract foreign visitors and they are apparently still hesitant to travel. Except for the hash tourists, but that's just not our target audience. To their regret, our volunteers are still at home waiting for the visitor flow to recover. Unfortunately, the reduced traffic is also noticeable in our finances. If you live in the Netherlands, take advantage of these quiet times to visit our museum in peace and quietness!
PermalinkMuseum Week
4 April 2022
The Dutch Museum Week started today and will run until next Sunday. So grab your Museum card and visit a museum. The Amsterdam Pipe Museum offers you a unique experience: a totally unexpected collection of great wealth of shapes and materials, presented in an atmospheric canal house. Invite your friends and pay us a visit! Look at the tab VISIT for the opening hours.
Again smoking club memorabilia
27 March 2022
Last October we received as a gift various objects from the Brabant Pipe Smokers Guild. This weekend we were again endowed with competition pipes plus the won cups and certificates of one of the deceased celebrities. It concerns material from the estate of the world champion pipe smoking Hans Sonderman, an enthusiastic resident of Dordrecht who gave shape to his hobby of pipe smoking in a very special way. For the time being the objects will remain in our reserves as a relic until there is more room for exhibition.
Permalink35,000 museum objects on the web
8 March 2022
A new milestone for our digitization. The counter of objects in the collection database keeps rattling every week, due to registrations of acquisitions and sometimes a 'forgotten' object. This counter has now passed 35,000 individual objects. This is no small matter, because each item has been extensively described and identified, but also photographed from all sides. This wealth of information is available to anyone who wants to see it, thanks to the worldwide web all around the world. We hear that the database is often used by enthusiasts, but also by museums, auction houses and antique dealers. It's free, so take advantage of it!
PermalinkConfess colour
28 February 2022
Under the slogan “Beauty in response to ugliness ”, the Dutch museums express their support for the people of Ukraine. The Amsterdam Pipe Museum has never commented on political situations, but is now making an exception. We smoked a peace pipe and concentrated on our own work, but this unprecedented violation of the national autonomy of a European country is literally crossing every border. We confess color and stand in solidarity with Ukraine.
PermalinkVirtual Collections
16 February 2022
Last year we expanded our website with a section named: Browse through the collection. Themes from the history of the pipe and smoking presented in series of attractive pictures. We will continue that section this year with Browse the Documentation, a chapter with flat, mostly paper objects from our library and documentation that are rarely shown. A variety of smoking stationery is presented here: advertisements for tobacco pipes or cigars, covers of famous books about pipes, posters, memorabilia from pipe smoking clubs, but also something as trivial as pipe bags. In short, a surprising but colourful selection of contemporary images of the smoking culture. Shows nicely how diverse the collection of a pipe museum is. Follow this link: https://pipemuseum.nl/en/sub/documentatie
PermalinkSuper specialized article
9 February 2022
Under the peculiar title Via glazed tips and bouts lacqués to the 275, Don Duco published an article about one specific pipe model, namely the well-known lacquered tip, or the “275” as the pipe is called according to the catalogue. The story describes step by step the development over almost two centuries of the pipe with a half-long bent stem, invented in England, produced in France and later copied in Gouda. A shape that, despite its English origin, was ultimately seen as specifically Dutch. A fascinating story about trivial shifts in the market that only the connoisseur can decipher. Link: https://pipemuseum.nl/en/article
PermalinkLock down coming to an end
26 January 2022
Finally, the winter recession with the associated COVID-19 lock down is over. The museums are now open again in Holland. Let's hope it stays that way for the rest of the year! Everyone is therefore welcome again, but for the time being still by appointment by phone or email for a reservation. Scheduling volunteers for a tour is not yet working. Now that you have the freedom: take advantage of it!!
PermalinkFirst acquisition 2022
20 January 2022
After an announcement by mail, we received a group of archaeological find pipes today. This happens more often and is always useful for our study collection. Today the group contained a more remarkable pipe. A pipe bowl from the French period in the Low Countries or rather from just before that: the Batavian Republic from 1795 to 1806 with the standing virgin with a freedom hat in the center of the front. Surprisingly, this image is usually depicted with Prussian soldiers as heraldic supporters. Here, however, those soldiers have been omitted. It is a matter of detail, but it nevertheless sheds new light on the significance of that representation over time. In short, an interesting object for new research into the iconography of this decoration.
PermalinkCigarette packaging
16 January 2022
This month our online database has been expanded with almost 400 images of boxes and other packaging for cigarettes. Nostalgic pictures of Chief Whip, Miss Blanche, Belinda and many others. It is the last extension with which our database provides a broader picture of the smoking culture. Cigarette boxes have been part of our collections since 1992, but the description of the first part had to wait until now. In the last weeks of the past year, we have spent extra time and attention to completing the determinations. If you find errors or have additions, please send an email with your corrections. In this way we continue to work together on a reliable source of information. Below each object record is a direct link with email address.
PermalinkHappy 2022
24 December 2021
The staff and volunteers of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum wish all visitors to this site a happy and calm Christmas, but above all a healthy 2022. The past year was another extreme year for the museum, with less than ten percent of the normal number of visitors and a correspondingly bad result for the museum shop. Fortunately, we have been able to achieve great results, for example by renewing this website. So many pages, stories, beautiful selections from the collection have been added and everything multilingual. We hope that the web visitor takes advantage of the possibilities and enjoys it immensely!
PermalinkThe umpteenth lockdown
13 December 2021
As of today, our museum is closed to the public again. It is no surprise that a new lockdown, the third one, was imminent, as announced until mid-January 2022. Another setback for our museum because the period around Christmas and New Year is a pleasant month, usually with many visitors. A time for buying presents, so the turnover for our shop will be none. Even our Christmas decoration will remain untouched again this year.
PermalinkOpium dampers
9 December 2021
This month the magazine Tribale Kunst (Tribal Art) published a richly illustrated article about opium pipe bowls, also referred to as dampers. Based on our extensive collection of stoneware pipe bowls our curator shows an overview of these interesting ceramic objects. Although the shape is rather standard, the decorations in different colours of clay are very creative. They range from subtle bamboo twigs to elaborate poems in fine Chinese characters
PermalinkPress moulds now open visible
29 November 2021
Anyone who has searched for tools in our sub-collection will no doubt remember that all press moulds were presented in closed position. That had to do with the system of sorting, but for the visitors that was rather inconvenient. The order of these images has changed over the past two weeks, so that the first image now shows the press mould in open position. This makes it much easier to recognize a particular pipe shape. If you don't know the work behind the scenes of digitization, you won't realize that conversion was a manual job. It turned out to be more than forty hours of intensive work, but it is well worth the time investment. Look at the result via this link: https://pipemuseum.nl/en/open-moulds
PermalinkMagnificent Porcelain Publication
22 November 2021
In the Keramos series, a highly specialized German ceramics magazine, Walter Morgenroth published a double issue on the porcelain tobacco pipe. The 240-page monograph contains a consistent and well-documented story with beautiful colour illustrations of the most coveted porcelain pipes, namely those from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Would you like to know more about the deserving and exceptional research in this publication? Read the book review Don Duco made in the further reading section on our website.
PermalinkAs usual the collector's event
12 November 2021
It's back this weekend, the National Collectors' Fair in the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht, an event of international allure for years. This large collector's fair was skipped three times because of covid-19, but this time the activity will finally take place on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 November. Keep your fingers crossed for some beautiful finds!
NOTE: Latest news - on Friday evening, immediately after the build-up day of the fair, the event was cancelled over the weekend due to the tightened corona measures.
Over-visited MuseumNight
8 November 2021
What no one expected in these harsh times of Corona is that the Museum Night was overcrowded this time. From seven o'clock in the evening there was a line of visitors waiting along the Prinsengracht and in the hours until midnight we got more than 674 visitors! Evidently, everyone was looking forward to a good night out. It is a pity, of course, that our personal explanation cannot be so complete in such a huge crowd. Hopefully for many a first acquaintance with our unique collection that invites to come back again. And the fragrant tobacco with explanatory seasoning, that was certainly a success.
PermalinkMuseum night: museum of scents
5 November 2021
At the Amsterdam Pipe Museum, the upcoming Museum Night is all about smelling, not smoking. For the enthusiast, we have a range of aromatic tobaccos ready to smell the difference between the types of leaves and the region where they grow. The oral explanation of our tobacco expert also discusses the method of drying, preparation and the added flavourings. Come by tomorrow and experience more about the joys of pipe smoking, with an important role for the nose! As you understand, we cannot allow real pipe smoking.
PermalinkPet from the American Indians
29 October 2021
As pipes of the American Indians we know the iconic calumet and the tomahawk with their fixed appearance. However, there are also wondrous inventions, as this recent purchase shows. Made from a light type of wood, a special animal head has been created in a highly stylized way, the eyes of which are accentuated with brass tacks. The red paint, almost expressionistic, also contributes to the wonderful appearance. The inside of the pipe bowl is coated with an anti-burning paste, which makes the soft wood reasonably durable. Pipes like these are not only rare, but they also bring variety to our collection. So, a welcome addition to the museum!
PermalinkCalebash pipe on show
28 October 2021
In anticipation of the Amsterdam Museum Night at the beginning of next month, posters for this event are being pasted on the publicity signs. We are proud that Sherlock Holmes' famous calabash pipe is clearly on display. It is special that such a daily consumer item like the gourd has become an icon for pipe smoking. Though it's not entirely clear whether the younger generation still has this association. In any case, a nice advertisement for the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. Let's hope that the N8 will be well visited in these uncertain Corona times.
PermalinkEnd of a pipe guild
22 October 2021
Since about 1900 there has been a flourishing club life in the Netherlands of pipe smokers who meet each other monthly to smother a pipe. But times are changing, so where can pipe smokers gather these days? In your own garden, yes, but further? As a result, some clubs, named guilds in the south of our country, have gradually disappeared into thin air. The Brabant Pipe Smokers Guild is one of them. Ruud van Scheijndel, former Guild Master, was kind enough to donate his club archive and personal smoking accessories to the museum. During the transfer he turned out to be full of memories and stories, which we shared pleasantly. Thank you for this special donation! In future the competition pipes and other objects will be proof of a pleasant guild life that unfortunately perished in the anti-smoking campaign.
PermalinkVisit to the new Big Ben factory
17 October 2021
The Gubbels company, known for the Big Ben pipes, moved again last year. In current times when the pipe is no longer a common thing you see daily in the streets, it is logical that a pipe factory reorientates itself. Koninklijke Pijpenfabriek Elbert Gubbels from Roermond has moved into a new location where all activities fit perfectly. After forays into electronic smoking and other by-products, the focus is now completely back to basics: designing and making good quality briar pipes, just like it started three generations ago. Director Elbert Gubbels welcomed us with justifiable pride in his new business premises near Roermond (the German border) with an area of no less than three thousand square meters. A building with sufficient space for the production line, storage of goods and a fine show room.
PermalinkInterim balance with a vision for the future
4 October 2021
Every museum has to make an analysis from time to time whether goals are being achieved and whether the business operations are still satisfactory. Bart Bemelmans Advies has offered its services for our museum. In more than twenty conversations with stakeholders, from the museum world as well as collectors and pipe smokers, Bemelmans builds up an image on which to base a vision for the future. It consists of short-term solutions to get out of the COVID-19 dip. In addition, much more important is the long-term vision that must guarantee the future of the museum. A challenging but not an easy task. We'll see if he turns our world upside down!
New roof, new stucco
27 September 2021
Maintenance of the museum building is an ongoing concern. We took advantage of the dry month of September to renew the roof covering of the back house followed by the stucco of the rear facade. This wall is facing the sun and turned out to be largely detached from the walls. Hence, repair was necessary. The work could be carried out with some ingenuity of scaffolding combined with ladders. Lucky enough without any broken legs! We hope to be dry and well protected over the coming years.
PermalinkPipes with a difficult name
20 August 2021
The purchase of a few pipes with the portrait of a historical warrior prompted us to delve into the history of the nineteenth century portrait pipe. This resulted in a fascinating article about the Gallic hero Vercingetorix, a household name for Asterix readers. The article tells the story of the man who, as chieftain, resisted the all-powerful Romans and was therefore idealized in the nineteenth century as the founder of Gaul or France. In addition to beautiful pipes, the article also presents an exciting history. Now available to read on our website.
PermalinkNapoleon pipes
25 July 2021
Recently two pipes were placed in the temporary display case in the centre of our museum, so large that they fill the cabinet almost completely. Two monumental meerschaum pipes made in honour of Napoleon, both depicting the Emperor himself. They are a grateful subject during the museum tour, because each pipe bowl gives a different picture of the French emperor. One, according to the silver mark, dates from 1807, just after the campaign in which the Prussians were defeated. The scene with the Emperor on horseback is elaborated in great detail with his turbaned valet and bodyguard Roustam and fighters on the French and Prussian side around him. The other is much coarser and dates from the Second Empire around 1840. Here we see Napoleon in action, lighting the fuse of a large cannon himself. Even the lid shows the portrait of the emperor in a meerschaum medallion.
Article on Japanese smoking paraphernalia
19 July 2021
Published on the web this week, a new article by Don Duco. It concerns a sketch of the special smoking utensils from Japan, written on the basis of the collection of our museum. Not only the characteristic Japanese pipes are discussed, but especially the pipe holders or kiseruzutsu with accompanying tobacco boxes and tobacco pouches. More than eighty photos provide a cross-section of the objects that were so familiar to the Japanese for a long time and have now fallen out of use. An interesting anthology about a consumer article that has remained virtually out of the picture in the Dutch tobacco literature. Fortunately, this article now changes that.
PermalinkProgression in photos
4 July 2021
It's been a year since we updated our photo collection on the web in this series. In July 2020, it was the milestone of 170,000 unique images. Today, almost a year later, the counter passed the next five thousand! A small difference in percentage, but again a more impressive number. Describing and photographing our collection has become an essential task behind the scenes. The silence and months of closure of our museum because of Corona made us progress in this. If you look at the website more often, you will certainly spot the additions, because there are countless never-before-seen acquisitions, some of which make a splashing impression.
Impressive pipe factory
28 June 2021
Where pipe factories all over the world have to close their doors, downsize or even go bankrupt, the opposite happens at Chacom. This French briar factory, the oldest in the world, moved into new premises. They exchanged a dusty and damp factory space in the center of Saint-Claude for a fresh and modern building on the outskirts of the city. With 3,000 square meters there is enough space for efficient production units and the stock of turned but unfinished pipes. In addition, there is a lot of room for the company history with antique machines and advertisements. A must for every pipe smoker is a visit to the great showroom with beautiful videos of the production and history, but also the complete overview of their current range. There is also the nicest merchandising such as T-shirts and mugs with print in which the pipe plays the leading role. It is the impressive but perhaps also the last proof of the great history of the briar industry in Saint Claude. Congratulations to Antoine Grenard who took the initiative for this.
PermalinkHistory of Commoy-David
25 June 2021
Today in Saint-Claude, the French pipe city where as a confrère you regularly have to show your face and where we know various pipe makers personally. When visiting Jacky Craen, Don Duco received a unique archival item for our collection as a gift. The retired pipe maker still runs his shop in the center of town. From his father-in-law he still owned an impressive folio with the financial administration of the company Commoy-David. Coincidentally, the opposite has been present in our library for years, but it could never have been understood without this part. By completing this five-hundred-page folio with the cash register of this interesting company, we gain a unique insight into the sales figures plus distribution of customers in Europe during and just after the First World War.
PermalinkProfessor Fock passed away
22 June 2021
Within the art-historical world, the city of Leiden has been known for decades as the city of applied arts. The first professor, Professor Theo Lunsingh Scheurleer, was succeeded in 1982 by Professor C. Willemijn Fock. Don Duco graduated with her in 1987. Later, Professor Fock was prepared to take on an advisory role in the Pijpenkabinet foundation, following her vision that applied arts should be stimulated across the board. As a result, our field of expertise also rose in prestige. We keep fond memories of Willemijn's commitment, in a formal sense, but also of pleasant hours with her at the dinner table.
PermalinkTwenty years of 'Object of the month'
18 June 2021
This month, with issue number 240, we are completing exactly twenty years with our ‘Object of the month’ section. In the meantime, not only the section on our homepage has become familiar, but also the messages about this on Facebook. To some, even the objects will look familiar. Time for change? No, why should we? The section is too popular to exchange for an alternative. For now, we'll just keep going, for many of our site visitors it's the first thing they look at. And when it comes to our field, there is always enough choice of attractive, curious or descriptive objects to highlight with a story.
International Museum Week – Day 7
13 June 2021
Words for the Future. Smoking has a bad smell since the invention of the cigarette. Pipe smoking on the contrary is meant as a ceremony, as a moment of relaxation, only you with your pipe or in pleasant company. What will that be like in 100 years? Hopefully the addictive cigarette will then really be something of the past, while the tobacco pipe makes it revival among connoisseurs. Anyhow, the collection of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum will still exist as an archive of this special heritage.
More info on APM library
International Museum Week – Day 6
12 June 2021
Art is everywhere… This is the famous pipe from 1994 called 'screw driver', exactly what it is. But now in platinum glazed ceramic, made by the Gouda pipe manufacturer GTP. Guido Geelen, the designer, turned a simple utensil into a work of art, which can also be used and enjoyed as a tobacco pipe! That's creative!
More info on APM 13.805ddd
International Museum Week – Day 5
11 June 2021
Caption this. Is it the French shop window display pipe called 'femme Renaissance' made in 1860? Or a remake of Madonna in her iconic 'cone bra' by Jean Paul Gaultier from 1990? See what you want in it, the collection of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum offers every opportunity for creative thinking and free association!
More info on APM 1.888
International Museum Week – Day 4
10 June 2021
Eureka! A new discovery as a solution to a long-standing problem: the short pipe becomes too hot, the smoke too moist hence the taste gets spoiled. Well, in 1946 a certain Bryson from California thought to offer the solution with this system pipe. The aluminium stem has an ingenious system inside that forces the smoke to take a long zig-zag path and thus cools it down. Still, the pipe was not a big success and did not last long.
More info on APM 17.899
International Museum Week – Day 3
9 June 2021
Through children's eyes the collection of the #AmsterdamPipeMuseum looks very different. They are the first to notice that there are so many jolly animals in the museum. These two porcelain animals are really meant for smoking; acting as pipe bowls, the smoke comes out of the ears and mouth! Everyone can see what he likes in a museum!
More info on APM 12.781 en APM 13.606
International Museum Week – Day 2
8 June 2021
Behind the scenes the museum stores everything that cannot be shown in the permanent presentation, but that is strongly related with the theme. For example, the Amsterdam_Pipe_Museum has a documentation room with hundreds of boxes of printed matter, papers from the past about tobacco, cigars, etc. This is a cigar box label for quality cigars with a fancy factory building on it, beautifully printed, embossed and gilded in an expensive process.
More info on APM 28.872
International Museum Week – Day 1
7 June 2021
Once upon a time ... in a land far from here, there was an Indian who had found a plant in the jungle that smelled wonderful when burned. He made a hollow tube in clay, baked it as ceramic. Stuffed with the crushed leaves he could burn and inhale the smoke. The tobacco pipe was born. This 'tubular pipe' from Central America dates from the first centuries of our era and is one of the earliest examples.
More info on APM 19.821
Next week Museum Week!
4 June 2021
It is museum week from 7 to 13 June 2021. Not an ordinary national event but an international museum week especially on social-media. The Amsterdam Pipe Museum follows the seven themes of the day with an object from our collections. In this way we contribute to the countless activities in all parts of the world and hope to draw more attention to our renewed website. Facebook and Instagram support this activity.
PermalinkCarnation campaign for culture
1 June 2021
From 1 to 5 June the Dutch Carnation Action takes place, a fundraising campaign by the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund. Not only because we sympathize this Charity, but mainly because we ourselves have had no income for the past six months, we are participating for the Amsterdam Pipe Museum this year. Our aim is to raise money with which we can continue with the innovations of our unique website. The fundraising will be only online, with a special QR code (see above). Scan the code and transfer an amount via your own bank account, large or small - every contribution is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your gift!
PermalinkMemorial book APG
19 May 2021
A gift was presented today by Anneroos Meyboom and Frans Brouwer, both former board members of the Pijpenkabinet Foundation. It concerns the anniversary book of the Amsterdam Pipe Smokers' Association, once founded in our museum. The circle has now been in existence for twenty years. An opportune moment for a limited edition commemorative book to capture the illustriousness of the society for posterity. A special asset to our library, the culture of pipe smoking is increasingly fading into the background. Photos of members enjoying pipe and tobacco bring back that atmosphere of yesteryear.
PermalinkCleaning moulds
17 May 2021
This week an imaginary trip to the reserves of pipe makers’ tools to select dirty pipe moulds for cleaning. This year not with two but with four hands, with the help of an intern who quickly learns what cleaning means without destroying the patina of years. It wasn't difficult this year to select a portion of more than a hundred dusty molds for cleaning, next year it will be different. Most of the work has been done, so this sub-collection is now looking fine. After this weekend, a photo week will follow in order to make the results visible on the web. Then this heavy collection part can be viewed and studied all over the world.
PermalinkThe first museum visitors
7 May 2021
Although the formal lockdown has still not ended, we received the first group of visitors today. It concerns six students from the Reinwardt Academy who were given a thorough tour along the museum collection by our intern Jesse. As part of his studies, he presented a heritage project in which he addressed an appropriate museum issue, namely the exceptional yet aesthetic design of our museum. The visit was lightly interrupted with a nutritious lunch.
PermalinkOnline sale
29 April 2021
In times of Corona and therefore regular income disappearing, it is very important to generate new funds. We do this, among other things, by better filling the webshop that has been added to our new website. In addition to our books and the well-known double-walled Zenith pipes, we have created a new category: new old stock. These are unused wooden pipes that were manufactured long ago. Due to their age of about forty to over a hundred years, the brand is often rare, if it has not been discontinued for a long time. The model is now also scarce, but still just as attractive. In addition, the wood is much longer and therefore dries better, so that the pipe tastes softer. Every reason to promote these pipes from never-sold stocks. Easy to find via www.pipemuseum.nl and then click on the shop tab or directly via www.pipeshop.nl.
PermalinkA toast on the new website
21 April 2021
The crew of Datatrippers, our IT specialists, is our guest today - at an appropriate Corona distance - to raise a glass to the completion of our renewed website. For more than two years we have been actively working to reach this moment. The new website has received numerous extra features, such as a complete English version, also a new thesaurus that makes it possible to use search terms in German, French, English or Dutch language. In doing so, the system searches for the most suitable technology or material, county or tribe that you are looking for. In addition, all articles have been given a new look and the series of titles has been further expanded. All in all, it has been an incredible task. Of course additional information will follow in the near future. With the launch of the new site the older ones such as www.Pijpenkabinet.nl and the previous version of www.Pipemuseum.nl will be discontinued. Today a big thank you to the indispensable team of Datatrippers: Jurgen for the smooth and cooperative communication, Kristel for the design and Robert for solving all database bumps. Hats off to these skills and craftmanship!
PermalinkThe importance of the library
19 April 2021
Today a new video in our series has been posted on the museum's YouTube channel. This time it is Benedict Goes who talks about the importance of the library for a museum. With a number of special books as examples, he explains that books and other printed publications add depth and knowledge to the collection. Regardless of whether it concerns the design or the material, the method of use or the vision of the smoker of yesteryear. You can read all this in handbooks for smokers, antiquarian poetry, overviews and many other books. It is clear that we cherish our library and certainly cannot do without it to gain all the knowledge about our objects.
PermalinkThree videos in a row
8 April 2021
Our intern Jesse is doing well. In the past week he completed three films, which are now on our YouTube channel. After intensive days for the recordings, always at a different location, editing followed for him. Get ready for the PC to watch and see and hear more about the corncob pipe, the painted porcelain pipe and the video about pipes for the queen. The braid of meter pipes is a unique historical document that certainly deserves a film. This time co-starring Benedict Goes as presenter.
PermalinkAnton Manger
4 April 2021
Today we were informed that the well-known German pipe maker and pipe collector Anton Manger has passed away on March 31. He reached the respectable age of 92 years and was still active as a pipe maker until the very last. Manger was truly a dedicated collector. His greatest passion lay with the Ulmer Kloben, the German burl wood pipe on which he wrote a monograph. His collection contained almost too many such pipes, incorporating every single different detail. In addition, he published a book on the meerschaum pipe production in Ruhla. We will miss his enthusiasm and dedication.
PermalinkTobacco pipes made of ivory
29 March 2021
Few materials are rarer than ivory to make tobacco pipes. That has made them highly sought after and extremely exclusive since the eighteenth century. Understandable that you don't see them often, because this hard dental material is difficult to work with and actually not very suitable for the smoker who wants to enjoy it comfortably. Curator Don Duco has taken six ivory pipes from our rich museum collection and studied them from the material and the books. This provides a new view on these rare pipes. Read the article to discover everything about the design, the ways of production and the dating of these artistic and desirable little works of art.
PermalinkAcquisition in black bamboo
19 March 2021
This impractical tobacco pipe was recently acquired for our collection along with several other Asian smoking objects. The pipe bowl is carved like a dragon’s head in which a small metal pipe-bowl is placed. Metal, because in China it is customary to smoke from this material. The stem of the pipe is formed by a piece of rustic bamboo with a whimsical shape like the moving body of the dragon. Such errors of nature are extremely popular with the Chinese for use as a work of art or an implement. Despite the wonderful shape, the pipe has been used for a long time, as evidenced by the smoke traces in the bowl. Not a curiosity, but a serious tobacco pipe that has given smoking pleasure for years and even prestige to the smoker.
PermalinkPremiere on YouTube
17 March 2021
Intern Jesse launched the first short film on YouTube today. Doing so, our museum is making a start in a new domain. We were already strong in providing visual material, but from now on the museum will also present itself in moving images. This first video is the start of a series in which the Amsterdam Pipe Museum will primarily appeal to young people. The first subject chosen is the introduction of the characteristic Japanese tobacco pipe, the kiseru with its small metal pipe bowl and bamboo stem. With such short videos, we hope to draw more attention to the subject of pipe smoking, both in a historical perspective and on current affairs.
PermalinkInternational Women’s Day
8 March 2021
Today it is International Women’s Day, but a hundred years ago there was no such an event, however emancipation was jet a theme for women. The most obvious way to show this was to wear reform clothing, modern dresses without a corset! This beautiful Art-Déco cigar box label in our collection shows this reform clothing, an unexpected combination with a cigar brand.
PermalinkEnjoy browsing through the collection
6 March 2021
This week a new item on the website has been completed: virtual exhibitions of objects from our collection. It turned out to be an impressive presentation, intended for anyone who is a bit reluctant to use the search system of the collection database. We hope that these more than 40 new chapters with over five thousand photos will be consulted as frequently as the previous edition with only small thumbnails that has served for more than twenty years. Go to collections on our home page and click on browse the collection and a new world will reveal itself. From now on you can relax at home browsing and watching pipes. One click on the photo and it appears full-page. If you want to know more, click on the number below the picture, then another surprise will follow! In the meantime, we are working on a second version, mainly intended for so-called flat objects: prints and documents.
PermalinkTabacology
19 February 2021
The Amsterdam Pipe Museum collection has had a department for Tabacolgy for years, in addition to clay pipes, archaeology, ethnography, etc. It is a nice term to refer to all objects that have to do with tobacco, or in a broader sense, with smoking. In fact, it is a neologism, a newly invented term, perhaps not even an official word. All of a sudden, something strange is going on. The word tabacology appears to have acquired a different meaning in neighbouring countries. In Belgium and France in particular, unnoticed the term is commonly used for the “medical study on smoking addiction” or “counselling for smoking cessation”. It is even an official university study. Now that is not something that a museum with historical objects around pipe and tobacco wants to be involved with. So as a precaution, to avoid confusion, we have replaced our beloved term tabacology with tobacco curios, subdivided into European or ethnographic. The collection is no less interesting!
PermalinkIce skating on the canal
12 February 2021
So far we could hardly call it a winter, but since this week it is really freezing cold. For the first time in several years, skating is possible again on the canal. That produces beautiful pictures like this one of our museum from the ice. Wondering how long the winter fun will continue.
PermalinkAPM now also on Instagram
1 February 2021
We thought news items on our website and presence on Facebook were sufficient so far, with an energetic intern, new channels of communication are opened. Today we are launching the first post on Instagram. This platform for photos and videos is very similar to Facebook, but it is more visually oriented. Our collection contains so much unexpected footage that we can continue for ages in posting something new. Jesse sets the tone for our museum with his personal choice.
PermalinkTrainee pimps up the museum
25 January 2021
As of today, Jesse Bakker, as a second-year student at the Reinwardt Academy im Amsterdam, is the new junior curator of our museum. The only museum training in our country provides students with the right background knowledge and motivation to help us. The vibrant energy of a young person is noticeable from day one. Jesse will mainly focus on our presentation on social media, making videos, everything for the online presence of the museum.
PermalinkThe virtual collection
16 January 2021
In the first version of our website early 2000, we launched a virtual presentation. In fact a picture book of special pipes in thematic paragraphs. Over the years, this section of our website turned out to be one of the most popular and frequently cited. These weeks we are working on a new version that will also be drastically expanded. By popular request, the photos can now be enlarged, simply with a click on the image. Another new feature is a link under each photo to our collection database, so that with a simple click all information about this particular object is shown. Whether they are called picture books, virtual presentations or illustrated encyclopedias, the optical result is really attractive.
PermalinkFirst acquisition 2021
14 January 2021
Where in the past sellers and private individuals had the pleasure of coming to the museum in person to offer something for our collection, in Corona time everything goes by mail. Hastily handed over at the doorstep by a delivery boy with face mask. For example, today we received our first acquisition of the year 2021, a nineteenth-century cigar holder carved in meerschaum with an amber mouthpiece. As a depiction a slightly piquant woman, this time not just a head with a beautiful hairstyle or hat, but a complete bust which makes this pipe special. She holds one hand on her hat, in the other we see a bouquet. The beautiful patina is the result of frequent smoking. It is evident that the original owner enjoyed a lot of pleasure by smoking and viewing.
PermalinkChristmas and New Year’s wishes
24 December 2020
From the Amsterdam Pipe Museum on the Prinsengracht we wish you a merry Christmas and a good, healthy and happy 2021. Of course we hope that the new year has more freedom to offer and that we can meet again in our museum and the museum shop again in the New Year!
PermalinkAnother lock-down
8 December 2020
For those who follow the news, it was no surprise that a new lock-down was imminent. Today shops and museums close and that will remain so until January 19, 2021. For many people this will be the quietest Christmas time of their lives. A huge disappointment for the museums, the employees and all volunteers because December is the nicest winter month with atmospheric decorations and lighting. As a contribution to public health, we will adhere to the new rules. The work behind the scenes continues without interruption.
PermalinkLa ronde Bretonne
6 December 2020
A unique asset to our collection: a pipe with the special name La Ronde Bretonne. Over a dozen men, women and children sit around a column, playing an instrument, or singing and even rocking a toddler. In short, a table tobacco pipe with a jolly scene that brings cheerfulness into the home to get through the Holiday Season. With a base and lid made of amber and gold-plated silver mounting, packed in a wooden case with black leather on the outside and velvet on the inside. A pipe made in Paris at the time by Louis Lavisse, a maker of name and fame. We discovered this specimen in a French auction report as early as 2004. Since then, this object has been hiding in a private collection from where it is now sold. Today the object has been purchased by us and has become a museum item, a final destination worthy for such a special object!
PermalinkRoyal pipe factory forever
22 November 2020
The factory of the well-known Big Ben pipes was already awarded the Royal designation in 1972. But the once successful Dutch company went bankrupt in 2011. Declining sales due to the aging of the target group, the general anti-smoking mood, expensive man power, it all played a part. In the meantime, Elbert, the founder's grandson, has continued and has sought new income, for example in the production of pipe cleaners. These do not last as long as a pipe, generating a more regular sale. His Majesty – or someone on his behalf – has approved that Elbert's factory may continue to use the honorable title: The Pipe Manufacturer Gubbels established 1870. Hence the page with historical data can be found in the recent publication Met Koninklijke Allure (With royal alloy) listing all ‘purveyor to the royal household’.
PermalinkStummels put in timeline
15 November 2020
In a recent article Don Duco recounts the complete history of the stummel, the famous German porcelain pipe bowl that was produced for over two centuries. It concerns the pipe bowl with an oval bowl and a short stem made of shiny white porcelain. These pipes are loved for their painting, which in its heyday was of incredible quality and refinement. The history of this article is told through more than 150 examples from our rich collection. This piece of research will answer many owners of such a pipe bowl to questions about usage, fashion and age, but it will also point out interesting technical features.
PermalinkZoom session European Commission
10 November 2020
Europa Nostra has organized a complex conference call, in which twenty laureates of the European Hertage Award plus another dozen officials will meet with the European Commissioner for Culture and Education Mariya Gabriel. She expresses her appreciation for all the public attention to heritage that the prize winners from so many countries have created with their activities. For Don Duco the official moment receiving the award, however from behind his own laptop. Still a memorable moment, concluded with a virtual reception where you can raise your own glass with your favorite drink. During the drink nice reactions from audience, also from the Netherlands! And finally: many thanks to the jury for this great European prize.
PermalinkNo Museum Night
7 November 2020
Normally, the immensely popular Museum Night or MuseumN8 takes place on the first Saturday of November. It had long been clear that that event had to give way to ongoing Cornona restrictions. A pity, because our museum always looks fairytale-like with pink facade lighting and atmospheric artificial light inside during the night. As in an old Dutch song: Once a year, the whole gang comes together, now they can only dream of the year to come!
PermalinkMetadata week
16 October 2020
An important, but invisible aspect of creating a new website is guaranteeing good findability. To this end, you can add keywords to pages, the so-called metadata. For a week we did nothing but enter these words that are invisible to the web visitor. Just hope they will serve you well later. After that we quickly exchanged this virtual world for the reality of all the other work, such as emails and collection management.
PermalinkPromotion by Amsterdam&Partners
3 October 2020
Clever Instagram action by Amsterdam city marketing department, aimed at local residents to get them to the museums. See also: thuisinams uitinams hoegaathetmet museum pipemuseum amsterdampipemuseum. You swipe between four photos of our museum and read in a short quote what a visit looks like, what you can learn and why you mùst visit Amsterdam Pipe Museum. Looks nice! Hope many people will see and share it. Take a look for yourself at this link.
PermalinkEnd of anniversary year
1 October 2020
When we reached the milestone of our 50th anniversary on October 1, 2019, we were full of energy to make it a real festive year. Memorize what we have achieved in half a century in terms of the expanding collection, unexpected research, the beautiful museum. And repeatedly giving press impulses to put the Amsterdam Pipe Museum better on the map. Unfortunately, all those plans were disrupted by Covid-19. Fifty weeks later, only the diaries that Don Duco wrote as mementos of memorable feats of arms will still recall the festive year. All public activities were canceled due to Covid restrictions. Our museum has to wait with the other Dutch museums for new opportunities once the virus has passed away. Only then a normal way of life will give room for culture again. So please be patient.
PermalinkRemarkable donation
29 September 2020
It is not often that a museum visitor comes to our museum and offers a pipe as a gift. Today we got a visit from a lady living in Amsterdam-Buitenveldert. She resided in Iran for a period in the late 1960s. In addition to all kinds of jewelry, she owned an antique pipe, which she came to show. It is a typical Persian utility pipe, but one with an evident age. The long wooden stem is octagonal with two bands in subtle chip carving work. The object was bought on the antique market in Tehran at the time. She generously offered the pipe to our collection. A special donation because tribal pipes with a considerable age are not easy to find nowadays.
PermalinkArtworks in wood
27 September 2020
This autumn, the beautiful magazine Métier dedicated to craft, art, materials and technology presents an article about wooden pipes by Benedict Goes. Six pages in full colour show interesting objects from our collection, some even full-page. The text not only establishes the historical connection, but also highlights the special techniques that have been applied throughout Europe, from fine carving to inlay work with silver thread. A free copy is available for our donors.
PermalinkAuction Barton
22 September 2020
Although most of the famous Barton collection was already sold at auction in 2010, a new group of pipes came up for auction quite unexpectedly. A wide variety of pipes were offered in more than sixty lots, from porcelain and meerschaum to ethnographic material. As to be expected, this included numerous interesting objects for our collection. We purchased a total of twenty objects, mainly ethnographic. The masterpiece in it is a tobacco pipe from Siberia made of mammoth ivory, a rare object that we were never able to acquire. The pedigree of this specimen is particularly interesting, Barton had taken over the piece from Alfred Dunhill's collection. The pipe was considered special even a hundred years ago, and it is not without reason that it is pictured on the dust cover of Dunhill's standard work.
PermalinkDanish design in Het Parool
21 September 2020
In response to the donation of the pipes smoked by politician Jos van Kemenade and our exhibition, Het Parool wrote about us again. In the column Aldus by Dylan van Eijkeren, Benedict Goes tells in five questions something about current events, in this case about the origin of the pipes of a Dutch celebrity. This immediately resulted in a number of nice reactions via facebook and watsapp and also led to some more museum visits.
PermalinkRed T-shirt campaign
19 September 2020
Another good Instagram action by Amsterdam & Partners aimed at the city residents to get them to the museums. With a customized T-shirt especially for our museum, we can now take a picture to highlight the museum. After all, photos of people work better than dead objects on Instagram. See also: thuisinams uitinams hoegaathetmet museum pipemuseum amsterdampipemuseum iamsterdam maaktmokum. It doesn't really work yet, but that is understandable with the simultaneous advice to work from home as much as possible (and therefore to stay at home). Against the current, we will continue to exist for the time being and we’re open to the diehard fan.
PermalinkSmoke column turns into a museum object
18 September 2020
In February we already reported the removal of the smoke pole or smoke column from all train stations. That has now been realized. Today the contractor delivered a beautiful copy to the museum. This donation from ProRail makes this "dirty ashtray" a symbol of an era in which cigarettes were still tolerated. That time is over, smoking is prohibited in public transport and all its premises. From now on, the smoke column will continue as a museum object, for the time being in the reserves. One time it will serve a new museum presentation.
PermalinkExhibition Danish Design
14 September 2020
Our museum's post-summer exhibition showcases modern pipe designs, including many freehands, a style that originated in Denmark. The modern pipes are characterized by an asymmetrical shape, which is difficult to reach in the rock-hard briar wood. Usually this is milled on a turning lathe to a perfectly round shape. The design pipes were all smoked by former minister Jos van Kemenade, who died last February. He had a specific preference for this Danish Design. His legacy of smoking equipment has been donated to the Amsterdam Pipe Museum, to which this original exhibition "Danish design, the choice of Jos van Kemenade" is due. On display until November 21, 2020.
PermalinkPipe museum Oberelsbach
7 September 2020
Finally we could make it to a museum that has been on the bucket-list for years: the First German Tobacco Pipe Museum in Oberelsbach, a small town in the northern part of Bavaria. This local museum is as specialized as ours, it only exhibits pipes. Housed in a historic building, smoking pipes that were especially popular in that area of Germany are displayed across four halls. The interior is ultramodern, which fits well with the highly renovated interior of the building. Nice groups are the typical German porcelain pipes with paintings for soldiers, students or craftsmen.
PermalinkTobacco Museum Bünde
6 September 2020
Being in the neighborhood it is always a pleasure to visit the tobacco museum in the well-maintained town of Bünde. Housed in a traditional half-timbered house on the edge of the center, the museum offers a glimpse into the history of tobacco with a special focus on cigar making. As a visitor, you can open numerous drawers in the permanent display to view the depot collection. This way you find out that the collection has a considerable number of tobacco pipes and cigar holders, mainly German material but also objects from abroad. In short, a must for anyone who travels Westphalia.
PermalinkCorona changes, an update
29 August 2020
With a declining number of visitors and little traffic on the canal, we notice that Amsterdam has changed dramatically under Covid-19. The usual flow of tourists has completely dried up, only the drug tourist, the young reckless visitor who doesn’t care about anything, has remained. It is not surprising that museum visits have run down drastically, because culture is not their thing. The confusion whether making a reservation is compulsory or not, whether or not to wear a face mask, does not does not contribute to a relaxed museum visit either. For the time being we will remain open and will be welcoming any visitor to the museum. Unfortunately, we won’t have to count on crowds at our place.
PermalinkTranslation process
27 July 2020
In the past three months we had constantly new messages because of the lockdown, now it seems to be a bit of silence about our museum. Behind the scenes we are working on another mega job, that is to say the ongoing translation of our website. A never ending story. We are currently working on the object name field, which is being translated into English. That seems simple, but it involves opening and closing almost 35,000 boxes with the aim of typing in the appropriate translation. It must be said that these translations do not turn out to be easy, because the English language does not always have an equivalent for our specialist vocabulary.
PermalinkUnmarked apogee
23 July 2020
During the continuous up-loading of photos into our online database, we appear to have reached a new record. The counter has passed the 170,000 unique photos in our database. As a matter of fact, the record is not in unexpected groups of acquisitions, but in the deepening of the database due to the desire to present multiple photos of each object. This is a unique quality for a museum database, which is highly appreciated by the virtual visitor.
PermalinkFilm about the prize winner
21 July 2020
The third of July the Dutch crew of Europa Nostra held a shooting day in the Amsterdam Pipe Museum for a short film about our museum in anticipation of the European Heritage Award ceremony. Inspired by this example, all nominees will produce such a video in order to promote their project. Take a preview of the film and experience how Don Duco's decades of dedicated work led to an impressive result.
PermalinkMagnificent meerschaum book
7 July 2020
Curator Don Duco made a book review of the recently released book by Anna Ridovics. It is a catalog of one of the divisions of the National Museum in Budapest, where Ridovics has been curator for almost twenty years. Click here and read his findings in the article or better yet, order the book through the museum in Budapest and learn which treasures are hidden in the reserves. The voluminous book with 445 pages with text in two languages and hundreds of good quality photos offers a wonderful insight into this sub-collection.
PermalinkEven more freedom
1 July 2020
The Covid-19 restrictions are gradually scaled down. From the first of this month, the museums are open to visitors again. Appointments with a time slot are no longer necessary. Only if there were really too many visitors at the same time, one has to wait. Although corona has not yet been suppressed, this is yet another major expansion of freedom. Incidentally, it appears that there is absolutely no question of crowds. Most people still have a large reserve for doing things outside their own home. Of course, safety and health come first. In any case, it is quieter in our museum than we would like. Those who want to take advantage of that tranquility are welcome now!
PermalinkPrivate museum of a manufacturer
28 June 2020
Still in Germany, today a visit to collector and pipe manufacturer Anton Manger in Wollbach. In the front part of his former pipe factory, this true pipe enthusiast has set up a museum, which has become a bit messed up due to the vast numbers, but is certainly astonishing . The focus is on Ulmer Kloben and other pipes from that region in addition to porcelain pipes, especially from Ruhla. We were pleased that, contrary to previous visits, Manger was now willing to part with some of the pieces from his long cherished collection. After negotiations we left with some thirty characteristic pipes in wood, porcelain and other materials. An unexpected souvenir of an impressive visit.
PermalinkGuest in Ulm
22 June 2020
Talking about German pipes and about quality, the city of Ulm comes to mind. Today we were there to get to know the city and visit the museum. Little remains of the important impulse that radiated from this city in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Besides a single pipe in the city museum, nothing reminds of this remarkable industry. The highlight of the day was the evening program, a visit to the collector and pipe lover Günther Merath. As a descendant of an Ulmer family, at a young age he took up an interest in the Ulmer pipe and has been collecting ever since. This is clearly visible in his fascinating collection. What we looked for in the museum in vain is in the cabinets of this passionate collector!
Permalink45 years of open museum
18 June 2020
Today it is forty-five years ago that our museum opened. Back then under the name Pijpenkamer Icon in the back of the gallery of the same name. On a much smaller scale than now in its own canal house, with the attention then still fully focused on the history of the clay pipe. It is an anniversary within an anniversary, which seems to characterize this year. After all, the collection has existed for 50 years, now 45 years as a public museum and also located on the Prinsengracht for another 25 years. Most surprising: because of Corona, 45 years after date, we have fewer visitors than then! Things can be strange in the world.
PermalinkLast photo week
16 June 2020
After the last tricky photos of some objects of odd size, we put the photography stuff away to get started with other work. The result is again astonishing: just over 5,000 unique photos made during four months. In the next few weeks, the last photos will be uploaded into the database and will then be available on the web worldwide. That will take a while because checking that everything is in place and has been accurately described always turns out to be a time-consuming task. In the end, it’s great to see the final results.
PermalinkMini anniversary
9 June 2020
While we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the collection this year, we reached another milestone today. This very day it is exactly 25 years ago that we received the key to the house on the Prinsengracht. The museum has now been located at the same spot for half of its existence! Looking back, moving to Amsterdam has been a good choice, which provided a tremendous boost to the expansion of the collection and the public reach. What the situation will look like in another 25 years is hard to foresee. Of course it would be great if we could realize a broader exhibition using the potential of our collection, which is still gaining in completeness. That would present our story in a more versatile way. The future will tell.
PermalinkNewspaper item
3 June 2020
Today Dylan van Eijkeren of the column Aldus in Het Parool wrote about us again. In the article, the newspaper readers are called on to vote for Don Duco in the public choice award associated with the Europa Nostra Award. The interview with Duco elaborates on the museum, its origins and the corona closure that has just ended. A photo completes the article.
PermalinkReopening museum
1 June 2020
Today the end of the lock-down has been announced and the museum is officially open for visits again. Nevertheless, spontaneous visits are no longer possible due to the extra rules, everyone must reserve a visiting time. With our museum with a limited floor space, this is certainly necessary because only three visitors or groups of visitors are allowed to look around at the same time. The Museum Association has drawn up an extensive protocol for all museums. We are curious how things will go, for the time being we are waiting how the situation develops. Anyone who likes to visit is more than welcome to book a time by email or by phone, even shortly in advance. Presently we do not expect serious streams of visitors, because tourism in Amsterdam has largely disappeared. So do not hesitate to make an appointment to come by and smell the scent of drying paint!
PermalinkTripadvisor
27 May 2020
Thanks to years of positive reviews on Tripadvisor, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum has regained a new status. We received the Travelers' Choice Award 2020. All locations listed on Tripadvisor are sorted by ‘rating’, with on top the five star category that visitors sometimes award. The award now received means that our museum is one of the ten percent highest rated attractions, worldwide! This exceptional achievement stems from the personal attention each visitor gets from our motivated team of tour guides. An achievement we are proud of!
PermalinkCracks in the walls
22 May 2020
The renovation of the first floor is now in full swing. Critical visitors may have noticed that the side walls had some stubborn cracks in the stucco. Under the supervision of a constructor, these were chiseled out this week, reinforced with steel plates and bricked again. Now that we are tackling this job, it is performed professionally for once and for all. What follows is plastering and painting. At the same time, the beamed ceiling of the main room has been restored. Another two weeks of work and then the museum floor will be in mint condition again. Ready for a new flow of visitors.
PermalinkPhoto week silver
18 May 2020
Earlier we reported about the photography that is more successful than usual due to the Covid-19 lockdown. After photographing the acquisitions and all kinds of tools, it is now time for the last portion for this spring session. It concerns the final part of the silver bequest, in particular the part that has been restored so that it can now be shown on camera in shiny condition. In addition to removal of dents and marks from all kinds of accidents in the past, objects have been polished and, if necessary, provided with a replacement mouthpiece. Repairs that greatly contribute to the splendid end result. After the actual photo making, the photo editing is the next step: cropping, optimizing the position, checking for color and removing irregularities. All in all a great job, but with a unique result that will soon be visible worldwide. In a few weeks, the material will be available to everyone on the internet through www.pipemuseum.nl.
PermalinkVote for Don !!
10 May 2020
Part of the prestigious European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Prize is the additional public choice award. This is a cash prize that goes to the project or person most valued by the audience. Everyone can vote via the Europa Nostra website. It is not without reason that we have notified all our relations to cast a vote. Although the competition from all over Europe is fierce, it would be nice if we win. Especially in these harsh corona times, now that all other forms of revenue have disappeared, this cash prize would be a welcome addition to our financial position.
PermalinkProminent in Het Parool
8 May 2020
Yesterday, after it was announced that our museum in the person of Don Duco will receive the Europa Nostra Prize, journalist Edo Dijksterhuis wrote a generous article about our museum for the metropolitan newspaper. A good interview with the laureate, including photos in large size. What is special is that this award provides yet another breakthrough: after being active in Amsterdam for 25 years, we are finally prominently featured in Het Parool.
PermalinkVideo of the laureate
7 May 2020
A short video was made for the nomination for the Europa Nostra Prize / European Heritage Award. It presents the life's work of Don Duco and the person himself. Cleverly made, using an old film fragment and a series of photos combined with new video material. See for yourself how the jury presents the laureate and click here.
PermalinkEurope Nostra Award 2020
7 May 2020
HURRAY!! Today it was announced that Don Duco is awarded the European Heritage Prize / Europa Nostra Prize in the category "long-term commitment to culture", otherwise called dedicated service. Don Duco has indeed worked with incredible discipline and persistence for fifty years on the result that is now achieved: museum, study collection, huge documentation files, the website with the entire collection online. What Europe Nostra particularly appreciates is the new website Don has initiated to bring together several museum collections across Europe in one single database. Available at www.pipeportal.eu. Europa Nostra, is the federation of heritage associations in all European countries. So this news is really spreading from Iceland to Cyprus!
PermalinkA week with moulds
6 May 2020
Anyone who has been following our news items for some time may know that once in a while a message with this title comes along. It means that we will be working on cleaning the collection of brass or iron pipe moulds for another week. Not the most exciting job, although it also has something of an unexpected holiday because it is different from all the other tasks. Many of the pipe moulds, of which we have more than 1,000, have not been used for a hundred years or more and have even rarely been taken out of their storage. This means a lot of dust, corrosion and deposits, in other cases still leftover clay or petrol from production. Before the moulds can be photographed, it is necessary to clean them. This time we managed to refurbish 80 new copies and pass under by the camera. In this way, a nice piece of new information comes on the web, while at the same time a piece of overdue work has been done. Once or twice more ‘a week with Moulds’ and the entire collection is online!
PermalinkDon Duco nominated for European Award
1 May 2020
The curator of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum, Don Duco, is one of the nominees from all over Europe for the European Heritage Prize, awarded annually by Europa Nostra. Associations and foundations from all EU countries were able to nominate exceptional initiatives and individuals with a great track record for this award. From this, an international jury selects the winners, in various categories: successful restorations of monuments, exemplary educational projects on heritage and people with personal merit. Don Duco is one of them. Now we wait to see what the outcome will be.
PermalinkMuseum of Bags and Purses closed
27 April 2020
The first museum to fall victim to the Corona crisis is the popular Museum of Bags and Purses on the Herengracht in Amsterdam. Today it was announced that this special theme museum will close for good. We cherish pleasant memories of this museum, where objects from our collection were on loan numerous times. It is sad that such a special initiative ends up failing because of something so banal as money, not because of a lack of interest! The Dutch Museum Association gave a warning that more museums will have to close down this year.
PermalinkLead models
22 April 2020
A remarkable sub-collection within the large group of tools in our museum is the series of lead models. These are casts in lead of the pipe moulds made by the firm P. Goedewaagen & Son in Gouda. These massive lead pipes were used by the mould maker to bring back the moulds to good condition when worn. Interesting about the lead models is that a shape number is stamped on. In some cases, the original press mould has not been preserved, but only the model. This then provides information about a specific pipe shape including the shape number. Some of these lead models have been on our online database for many years, but a large group was still undocumented. That happened this week and yielded many new insights. Meanwhile, the photos of this important collection have also been taken, they will be visible in the online database in a week or two. This is another job done from the many museum work that goes unnoticed behind the scenes.
PermalinkMuseum week
20 April 2020
The National Museum Week is being held this year in a special way because of the Corona flue only virtual. To this end, the Museum Association has built a fantastic web page with - due to the theme of 75 years of Freedom since WW2 - a digital reconstruction of Dam Square, 3-dimensional and moving. Photos of a masterpiece of every museum in the Netherlands are projected on the Monument. We are in the middle with an American peace pipe, the symbol of peace for everyone from childhood. Click on this link for the photo and the story: https://www.nationalemuseumweek.nl/pronkstukken/vredespijp/. The presentation on Dam Square can be seen at: https: https://goudenpronkstuk.nationalemuseumweek.nl/
PermalinkCollectors fair in Utrecht
17 April 2020
For years we have been visiting the famous annual collectors' market in Utrecht. Formerly as an exhibitor, nowadays to maintain contacts with the trade and other collectors. This would also be the case today, were it not for the corona that spoils everything. The fair has been cancelled of course. For the first time in years, this means no trouvailles from this huge market. Usually they are not shocking things that you find, but also ordinary objects without art value can be worthwhile for history. Often those simple or mundane things from one, two or three generations back are now incredibly rare. And it is precisely at this fair that objects that you do not expect at all appear. Too bad this opportunity for a fine treasure hunt now passes.
PermalinkNewly installed Africa storage
9 April 2020
The work behind the scenes of our museum, which is closed to the public, is getting more and more visible results. At the beginning of the Corona closure, there was too much overdue emails, small work that is necessary but hardly visible. For some time now we have been working on rearranging, packing and furnishing a depot especially for the Africa collection. As mentioned earlier, this group was significantly supplemented last year with an impressive collection of Congo pipes, which is why rearrangement was now topical. The pipes are now well packed in boxes per country or per people, all within a dedicated cupboard. As a result, space has become available in other places for the wider storage of other items. It is quite a job to rearrange like this, but in the end the result is a clear collection. That is exactly the intention.
PermalinkTranslation lists for the database
2 April 2020
Without visitors during the afternoon hours, there is more time for work behind the scenes. One of those invisible tasks is working on the new database and the new website. We aim to launch an English site in addition to the Dutch website within a few months. Before that, there is still an incredible amount to be translated. In recent weeks we have been examining the thesauri, lists of terms that appear in the database and have now been translated into English, German and French. A huge task to translate the endless lists of keywords such as materials, techniques, colours. In particular, the technical terms often form a stumbling block, which we will find out with some study. When the new site is launched, the translations will automatically appear in the object descriptions, but they will also act as a keyword in the search form. We are already looking forward to the result, although it will be tough task for the time being.
PermalinkCorona to be continued
30 March 2020
Although it was decided on 11 March to close the museums for a short period until the end of March, things turned out differently. For the time being, the Dutch museums will remain closed with the option to reopen on 1 June next. In the meantime we have made internal plans to renovate the exhibition space so that the period of closure is in any case used in our advantage. When we reopen in June, the museum will have had a facelift if all goes well.
PermalinkThe last Dutch pipe factory
25 March 2020
The renowned factory of Big-Ben pipes, also known by its own name Gubbels, is located in Herten in the vicinity of Roermond. As everyone knows, sales are not going well and so is the production of pipes. Due to the anti-smoke, there are fewer smoking moments, in many places smoking is no longer allowed at all. Inevitably, it is time for Big-Ben to move to a smaller location. Today we visited the factory to see if there was any historical material suitable for our museum. We had an open and honest conversation about the past and the future, with the previous generation also taking a seat. Then a tour around the company, which really is a model of orderliness and efficiency. After returning home a head full of impressions, also a few boxes with old and new pipes and other material for our collection.
Permalink23 March 2020
With the museum and the museum shop closed, we focus on another sales channel: the MuseumDepotShop. This website offers objects that museums want to get rid of or in the official wording: deaccessioning. Our collection originated from archaeology. Founder Don Duco not only collected pipes, but also archaeological finds of all kinds. We now know that they do not fit into the pipe collection and now it is time to clean them up. The webshop offers a wide range of finds, from pots and vases to glass beads, leather shoe soles, tin toys and much more. Interested? Visit www.museumdepotshop.nl and sign up for the newsletter. The proceeds from this activity will go to our acquisition fund.
PermalinkDocumentation about pipes
21 March 2020
A important task outside the public eye is keeping the documentation on the theme of pipes and tobacco. Throughout the year, each newspaper clipping, leaflet, magazine article or other printed matter is placed separately, with source and date. Once in a while, that stack must be ordered by theme and added to folders with the same topic. Really a job that you can postpone for a long time, because there is no time pressure. Now is the time to do during the Corona closure. With the museum closed, you can spread out and organize everything in peace. By doing so seven full working days of sorting passed, with great satisfaction as a result. The impressive cupboard wall with red storage boxes in the study has been updated to this day. If you have something special for our pipe and tobacco archive while reading this, we are happy to recommend you hand it in!
PermalinkTemporary closure of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum
13 March 2020
Today, due to the risk of infection by the Corona virus, the government has closed all public institutions. The Dutch Museum Association has called on its members to follow this measure and to close the museum to the public. An unprecedented and never seen measure! Although the rule initially applies to places with more than 100 visitors, to which we do not belong, given our floor space, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum will also close its doors for the next three weeks, including the store. New messages will be announced.
PermalinkValued bequest of a smoker
4 March 2020
Former politician and minister for Education Professor Jos van Kemenade died recently. He was well known to us as a dedicated pipe smoker and visited our store several times. Van Kemenade had a preference for striking pipes, preferably Danish designs. His son brought us a suitcase with his favourite smoking implements with his father’s wish to be given to our museum. We are allowed to make a representative selection of his purchases of brands or designs that are a good addition to our collection. The Vikings from the studio of Poul Winslow, tough freehands with their own style, were preferred by Van Kemenade. We also found attractive shapes by Ser Jacopo, Sir Nobile, Caminetto, Vauen and other brands. Curious is the pipe from 1989 that Van Kemenade was awarded as pipe smoker of the year. All in all, Jos van Kemenade's pipes provide a very nice time-bound and above all personal glimpse into the sense for fashion of a dedicated pipe smoker from around 2000.
PermalinkRemarkably quiet month of visitors
28 February 2020
January is known to drop in visitor numbers, but it usually recovers slowly in the following winter months. If not this year. It is truly remarkable how few tourists have visited our museum this month. This makes it all the more striking that we are attracting relatively many Dutch visitors this year. Would the Amsterdam Pipe Museum still become known to the Dutch public? Due to the extreme high percentage of foreign visitors, we got the idea that our collection was only appreciated by people from afar. Be that as it may, everyone is welcome. So come in and have a look, museum card is valid, so nothing to prevent you? And, until March 15, the most special acquisitions from 2019 can still be admired.
PermalinkEnd of the smoke pole in sight
12 February 2020
The National Railways have had smoke poles for years now on every platform, around which smoking is still allowed. This should end by the end of this year, in line with the general trend to combat tobacco consumption. The disappearance of the smoking pole heralds the end of an era in which cigarette smoking was tolerated. Nowadays smoking is surrounded with so many restrictions that it takes away your appetite. And rightly so, addiction is not a pleasure. We hope that the anti-smoke will make its mark so that in future we can take an unprejudiced look at the non-inhaling and enjoying pipe smoking. That should enhance the new bloom for our museum. Not the eternal association with only the bad aspects.
PermalinkThe first acquisition in 2020
4 February 2020
Later than usual, the first acquisition of this year came in today. It concerns the porcelain pipe bowl shown here. A so-called stummel, a common type but with a curious painting. In multi coloured hand-painting, two hands shake each other. Behind it is a flower bouquet with a German text along the rim of the bowl, something like "Roses are blossoming, and forget-me-not" and "flowers wither but real friendship does not". It is a typical farmers pipe from the nineteenth century, as a common gift at the time. They underline friendship and love. It is a genre that we are glad to add an extra copy to our collection, because these objects have become quite rare nowadays. Special here is the perfect condition of the object together with a pedigree that goes back over forty years.
PermalinkFirst photo week of the year
2 February 2020
Photography is a job for the Winter in the Amsterdam Pipe Museum: the days are shorter, the evenings are longer and suitable for retreating to the photo studio. That's how it goes every year. This time it is late, early February that we can start, in December and January other tasks demanded our attention. Such photography is very satisfying, especially now that a considerable series of acquisitions is in store. At first there is the beautiful group of ethnographic pipes from black Africa. Challenging to tackle, but also difficult. The pipes in dark wood tones are difficult to visualize. Please check our online collection database for the first results!
PermalinkArticle about two luxurious pipe bowls
30 January 2020
This month, the first article by Don Duco in this year is published on our website. Two wooden pipe bowls of a special shape are discussed, both with luxury silver mounting. These are pipes made of burl wood, in the style of the German city of Ulm. One of the pipe bowls shows silver figures in Turkoman style on the lid. In this article, the curator discusses the origin of this specific pipe shape and the method of manufacture. And not to forget the special type of wood, of which the original Dutch name was lost for many years. It is sought and sawed especially for these German pipes. Read the article and experience how the author comes to new conclusions through careful looking and comparing. Again it becomes clear that there is much more to say about each type of pipe than it often seems. In this way, our collection constantly offers new perspectives.
PermalinkExpo acquisitions 2019
20 January 2020
Traditionally, we annually show a selection of acquisitions from the past year. 2019 was particularly successful again with 360 purchases. The largest group is a collection of Congo pipes, of which we now show three fantastic examples with standing negro figures in the pipe stem. North America is represented with two beautiful Indian pipes of red pipestone, a sacred stone for the Indians. In addition two rare Inuit pipes, a wooden one and a pipe carved from walrus tusk. Of European origin are some very refined hand-sculpted ceramic pipes with lifelike portraits. Also chosen to display are some European snuff boxes with carving in coquilla nut or wood. Finally, of exceptional charm, a wooden figural pipe with a lion and a griffin brotherly side by side, from the Paris antique trade. Come and admire the choice of the acquisitions themselves, they will be displayed in the exhibition showcase in the museum until 15 March.
PermalinkChristmas wish
24 December 2019
From the Prinsengracht, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum wishes everyone a peaceful and merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2020. The enclosed digital Christmas card shows one of our exceptional purchases from the past few months: an (almost) complete excavated pipe from the seventeenth century with a double Janus head. In camouflage colour between the Christmas branches, it is hardly noticeable that this is an absolute masterpiece of extreme rarity!
Until October of the new year we will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of our special collection with all kinds of activities. Be welcome to visit our unique museum with well-equipped museum shop in the New Year!
Christmas in the museum
18 December 2019
As of today, the entire museum floor of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum has been transformed into a Christmas setting. The tree is in full glory, decorated with many balls and streamers and of course dozens of lights. Underneath a beautiful Italian nativity scene, awaiting the Jesus child. At the back, the three kings are already trudging through the sand to reach the stable. The festive decoration is unique in our museum and is highly appreciated by volunteers as well as visitors. You are very welcome to have a look and sniff some pine air. We wish everyone happy holidays.
PermalinkModern Art by exception
11 December 2019
From December 20, artist Doreen Wittenbols will exhibit her work in the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. A first and unique opportunity for a living artist! As you can see she has a thing for pipe smoking. Her father-in-law's tobacco pipes prompted her to ask whether pipe smoking could also be for women. In our museum she saw the famous portrait of pipe smoking lady by the French portraitist Mme. Vigee-Le Brun from 1820. It inspired her to take self-portraits and photos of other women with a pipe, some supplemented with paint to suggest aging or rejuvenation. It seems to be a kind of analogue photo shopping or virtual botoxing. A real art project, the result of which can be seen with us for some time until 20 January 2020. After the exhibition, the work will be taken to her home town of Santa Fe in the United States. Doreen also exhibits simultaneously in Arti et Amicitia at the Rokin in Amsterdam, presenting the same subject.
PermalinkExhibition head-hunter pipes
16 November 2019
From our rich reserves, this time we have chosen a small group of pipes for a mini-exhibition, pipes of extreme rarity. They are made and smoked by the Naga, a mountain people living in the far east of India. They are quite an aggressive people, even head-hunters. The brave warriors receive a pipe with a row of puppets on the stem, in the number of the victims beheaded by them. Another characteristic is that the pipes of this people show a stylized portrait as a pipe bowl, all carved in wood. After 1900, the British authorities in India try to ban headhunting. Eventually, the habit turns to beheading local monkeys called gibbons. It is therefore not surprising that some dolls look more like monkeys than people. Until 18 January 2020, the pipes will decorate the exhibition showcase in the middle of our museum. At the same time, curator Don Duco wrote an article about these remarkable pipes, which can be read in the publication list on our website.
PermalinkMuseum Night now open!
2 November 2019
On the canal, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum is clearly marked with bright purple lamps on the facade, so visitors know where they are welcome. Until 2 o'clock tonight we are open to all those who have been able to get a passe-partout.
Equipped with flashlights, visitors go on a discovery tour through our museum during Amsterdam #Museumnacht. A real scavenger hunt has been set out with the assignment to find the real pipes with the pictures. On the handout you can read what that exactly is. This way you get to know the oldest, longest or most exclusive pipes in the world. Photographer Joep made beautiful photos on behalf of Museumnacht - thank you for that. They will remain in our archive for generations to come.
Preview MuseumNight
24 October 2019
The theme of Museum Night Amsterdam 2019 is 'treasure hunting'. On November 2 it will be exciting in the Amsterdam Pipe Museum, perhaps a little creepy. For this evening we turn off the light and you can search and observe with your personal flashlight. This is how the details in the collection stand out best. You can look for the most bizarre pipes in strange shapes from all over the world. One display case will be very special: it contains only skulls - a popular motif in pipe design during the nineteenth century. Ticket sales start today, be quick because the N8 usually sells out quickly.
PermalinkAmsterdam City Walk
19 October 2019
Today the Amsterdam City Walk takes place again, an annual event where our museum is included in the route. Fortunately with a nice sun, but not for those who left first, because the first passers-by were walking around 9 am under a grey sky. Our canal house is a resting point for those who want to take a break and at the same time enjoy culture. We also serve tea or coffee for walkers. Although most runners keep pace, the sign is always a calling card for the 9,500 participants! Those hasty walkers may stop another time to pay a visit. Brand awareness is important after all.
PermalinkShe/He or gender differences
7 October 2019
During October, History Month, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum will put special pipes in the window on the theme She/He or gender differences. In pipe smoking there is a difference between what men and what women use. Especially in other parts of the world. For example, women in the Eastern Cape of South Africa smoke pipes of acacia wood decorated with colourful beads at ritual gatherings. The magic power is transferred through the pipe. In Cameroon, only men are allowed to smoke from pipes decorated with human masks and animal figures. Women smoke the same amount, but then from pipes with geometric decorations, more subtle in decor but so beautiful. Things are different again in Japan, where geishas smoke very elegant pipes with a minute bowl: a single puff and the tobacco is gone. All these pipes can be seen the full month of October at the Prinsengracht.
PermalinkDiary excerpts from Don Duco
2 October 2019
While fifty years of active collecting can turn into a rich collection, it is also a period in which you experience adventures as a collector. Every find is an event on itself. Digging for clay pipe fragments, but also going to an antique market or auctions that offer the chance of a trouvaille. Later you discover on long journeys how trilled you are to be able to buy an ethnographic smoking instrument, still warm from the user. All experiences, often at unexpected locations and with special people. Don Duco writes in a series of posts on Facebook and the website of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum diary fragments with memories from the past fifty years. This gives the museum collector a human face. Follow the episodes in this true "soap" for the next 50 weeks. Note the title Diary fragment in Facebook or go on our website to the museum section where this series will eventually be listed in full.
PermalinkPipe Museum’s fiftieth anniversary
1 October 2019
The discovery of a large number of clay pipes on 1 October 1969 was the formal start of our museum. This find on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam is today exactly half a century ago. How appropriate that the museum is now located within walking distance on the Prinsengracht. A lot has changed in those fifty years. The modest private collection became a registered museum with a versatile collection of smoking utensils in which almost all cultures of the world are represented. In short, the museum offers the worldwide culture of smoking. In the coming year we celebrate this milestone with a series of special events that expose our work.
PermalinkAn early birthday present
17 September 2019
For those who have been in the pipe business for a long time, the name Piet Tengnagel is known. In the seventies and eighties he actively collected pipes. Soil finds as well as complete pipes, and additionally a beautiful library. In the 1990s he said goodbye to his hobby and sold his collection in parts. Today he unexpectedly honoured us with a visit. Very thoughtfully he brought a gift for our upcoming anniversary. A beautiful freehand pipe by Larsen, still in the original packaging and complete with the bill of the time and some documentation. Piet, nice to see you after so long and thank you again!
PermalinkCigarettes still in the packaging
16 September 2019
The driving force behind the Stichting Rokersbelangen (Foundation pro-Smokers), Ton Wurtz, who fought for the rights of smokers for years, recently decided to donate his collection of cigarette packs to our museum, an exceptionally sympathetic gesture. The more than 150 still closed and sealed cigarette packs that Wurtz collected in course of two decades provide a wonderful overview of designs over these years. Different times and different countries are represented in the collection, including China and Russia. They are good proof of the care that was given to the packaging before the so-called dirty pictures finally messed up the design. These packages complement our documentation of tobacco packaging nicely with material from more recent times.
PermalinkGoedewaagen unsurpassed
15 September 2019
This year exactly twenty years ago, the monograph Koninklijke Goedewaagen, a versatile ceramic company by Don Duco, was published. Twenty years later, this well illustrated book is still the standard work on the history of this important factory for pipes and later ceramics. The edition is now only available as antiquarian copy or - one of the very last copies - new in our museum shop.
PermalinkHistorical evidence
12 September 2019
As a member of the cultural network, Benedict Goes was invited to attend the recordings of the TV program ‘Historisch Bewijs’ (Historical Evidence) in the auditorium of the Rijksmuseum. It examines in various ways whether historical objects from museums are as real as is always claimed. Critical researchers, for example, are looking at the famous Hugo de Groot bookcase, of which there are three. Which is the real one? And the phalanges of the De Wit brothers, the silver of Piet Hein's treasure fleet. Is it all real? During this recording, the outcome will be announced, but since the broadcasts are early next year, we should not reveal anything yet! As a matter of fact, an inspiring working method to look at our own museum objects in the same way.
PermalinkDuméril à Saint-Omer
26 August 2019
The luxury French town of Saint-Omer is not exactly on the route anywhere. That is why we drove separately for an appointment today with director Romain Saffré to see the unique collection of Duméril & Leurs pipes again. The pipe collection had been rearranged since our previous visit. The small pipe room of yesteryear was replaced by a real exhibition hall with beautiful sleek display cases. The pipes themselves are still a wonder to see. In forty years, this French factory has been able to perform the utmost in terms of design and execution. While most French pipe factories stuck to realism, Duméril created a fairy-tale atmosphere between romantic and bizarre in their designs. After visiting the presentation, we were allowed to open the drawers in the depot to view the reserves. Truly a unique ensemble and a very special department for a museum focused on ceramics.
PermalinkPress molds from Ritzen
4 July 2019
Curator Don Duco recently wrote an article about a pipe factory in Belgian Limburg. Last year, our museum bought a series of ten press molds from this company that, when studied, fit seamlessly with the history of the Ritzen company. This is a small, until now hardly known pipe maker’s workshop, founded in 1810 in Maaseik, a small town along the river Meuse in Belgium. Research into this material made it possible to write a missing piece of history and establish the Gouda influence in this company. Read the illustrated article on our website and be amazed at what a bunch of rusty pipe moulds can yield such interesting information.
PermalinkExhibition of acquisitions
17 June 2019
From 17 June to 24 August, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum will show a selection of acquisitions from the past year. 2018 was a very successful year. Firstly there was an important legacy of mainly metal pipes from the late Felix van Tienhoven an his wife. Further the museum bought important objects in various collection areas, in a great variety: rare pipes from the American Indians and Eskimos, the finest meerschaum pipes, to mention some. With this exhibition, the museum shows that it is still actively collecting to complete the global story of pipe smoking.
PermalinkEvenings for pipe smokers still popular
29 May 2019
Tonight, under the inspiring leadership of Benedict Goes, another smoking evening took place. Seated around the table in our central room was a nice group of aspiring pipe smokers and a few who had years of experience. For everyone, pipe smoking becomes so much more enjoyable if you have mastered the theory of filling your pipe and burning the tobacco. Whoever is interested to attend an evening can still send an email to info@pipemuseum.nl.
PermalinkNew award from Tripadvisor
27 May 2019
Tripadvisor has awarded our museum a Certificate for Excellence for several years. This means that our visitors rate the museum with the highest ranking in terms of service, experience and customer friendliness. Now that we have earned this award for five consecutive years, we now got a new qualification: Hall of Fame. We proudly carry this title and continue to offer our guests an unexpectedly rich experience with the world-wide collection in a beautiful canal house.
PermalinkEthnographical stuff
19 May 2019
The specialist collector of ethnographic art Gi Mateusen has been living in Turnhout, Belgium for many years. From his broad interest in African cultures, he brought together a fantastic ensemble of figured objects, such as fertility figurines, gold weights and especially combs. To make space, Mateusen decided to sell his pipes and tobacco-related objects. The purchase and transfer to our museum took place today. As a Belgian collector, he mainly owned items from the Congo. For our museum this purchase of about a hundred items is an important addition to the smoking equipment that we already have from African countries. The attached photo gives an impression of the unexpected variation in the richness of this collection.
PermalinkConcluding Winter photography
6 May 2019
Yesterday, after a few months, we dismantled the temporary photo studio. For us this is the starting signal for the tourist season. The photo sessions have again been very successful. We end up with just over 165,000 unique photos in our database! A fantastic result for a Winter period of hard work. This means that the acquisitions of the past year have been updated. We are now back for tourists who like to be scattered with stories about the global smoking culture. Let them come!
PermalinkLaunch of MuseumDepotShop
9 April 2019
The Singer Museum Laren formed the appropriate backdrop for the launch of the website www.MuseumDepotShop.nl. We were present, as one of the first museums that offered objects for this online shop that aims to sell orphaned items from museum reserves. This tackles a problem that the museums cannot solve themselves: the overflowing depots with items that do not really belong there. Television host Frits Sissing was introduced as an ambassador for this new web shop.
PermalinkMuseum week
8 April 2019
As a successor to the museum weekend, Dutch museums are now in the picture for a whole Museum Week from 8 to 14 April. The theme for the promotion of the museums is "discover our real gold". For that occasion the Amsterdam Pipe Museum shows real gold by means of three Japanese kiserus, recently bought in Tokyo. All these three pipes have a pipe bowl in gold or a massive gold mouthpiece. Items not only made as a status, but also because gold is compared to other metals, for smoking devices important being completely tasteless. Unfortunately, after the museum week these exquisite pipes disappeared again in the reserves, but many lucky visitors had the opportunity to see these during the Museum Week.
PermalinkFolk art in auction
3 April 2019
Today Auction House De Zwaan in Amsterdam sold a series of tabacological items from the estate of the collector and trader Loed van Bussel, who died last year. As a trader, he did ethnography, but for his personal collection the focus was on tobacco-related objects in carved wood. Some thirty lots with various snuff boxes, some snuff graters and pipe cases were put up for auction. The interest turned out to be overwhelming, especially by foreign telephone bidders. In spite of that, we bought ten objects for our collection, including the finest snuff bottle with three stream gods carved in fine boxwood. Here is another triumph depicted: an early snuff box in the shape of a reclining lion, carved from palm wood. With its age of almost three centuries a beautifully preserved object.
PermalinkSpring along the canal
29 March 2019
Spring appears to have begun with the arrival of two large boxwood plants. These beautiful plant pots give the museum's facade more cachet. The most important function, however, is to prevent cars from parking on the sidewalk, mostly parcel deliverers or customers from the coffee shops in the area. Hence the oversized format. In this way our visitors can reach the museum freely.
PermalinkJubilee Van der Want pipe factories
17 March 2019
On 17 March 1749, exactly 270 years ago today, Pieter van der Want Dirksz did his master proof for the Gouda pipe makers' guild. He is founder of the pipe factory that is now known as Zenith Van der Want. For centuries the factory produced press moulded clay tobacco pipes. Since 1920, the company has been known for its slip cast tobacco pipes, nowadays with a hollow-walled system for optimal dry and comfortable smoking. In Amsterdam Pipe Shop we have the exclusive right to sell these ceramic pipes that are appreciated worldwide for their dry smoking qualities.
PermalinkLecture Digital Heritage Netherlands
5 March 2019
On March 5, Benedict Goes gave a lecture at the Conference of Digital Heritage Netherlands (DEN) in Rotterdam, where he presented the pipeportal in the making. Our digital collaboration of multiple tobacco-related collections, even on a European scale, aroused admiration from the specialist audience. Participants of this conference were directors and other staff of museums and archives responsible for the online visibility of heritage collections. For those who are not familiar with this relatively new site made by our museum, visit www.pipeportal.eu.
PermalinkJapanse antique fair
9 February 2019
Today on the program a visit to an antique fair in Tokyo. There are hardly any antique shops in Tokyo, but every now and then there are fairs where traders from the wider area display their antiques. In the fifth storey of a boring tower building it appears that the complete floor has been rented and furnished with stalls. On arriving there was already a line of interested people waiting on the opening. It is fascinating to see how different the selection is than in Europe: a lot of ceramics and porcelain, but then typical in the local taste and furthermore crafts. In the area of the Japanese pipe, the kiseru, there is everything for sale, also for the advanced collector that we are. We left the place with some fine purchases but learned a lot as well.
PermalinkTobacco & Salt Museum
5 February 2019
Today Benedict Goes en Don Duco made a visit to the famous Tobacco & Salt Museum in Tokyo. This museum in Japan is one of the largest museums on this theme in the world, so a visit was on our bucket list for a long time. Since 2015 the museum has got a brand new premises just next to the research institute of the tobacco firm that pays for the museum. We talked with senior curator Reiko Sakaki about cooperation in digitizing the collections. Afterwards we made a tour through the spacious museum exhibition. A wonderful and learning experience.
PermalinkFirst acquisition 2019
30 January 2019
The first object added to our museum collection this year is a special one. It is a Scottish snuff mull made out of a ram's horn. Especially in the nineteenth century such boxes were a status for every Scotsman who sniffed tobacco and there were many. Remarkable about this specimen is the cut cairngorm, a semi-precious stone found in the eponymous Scottish mountains. Furthermore, the garnish of a scoop, brush and rake is unusual, although due to the short chains it doesn’t seem practical in use. The head of a seal, cut out of the usual curl of the ram's horn, makes this snuff box one of a kind. The box was a travel souvenir from Scotland and was kept for generations in an Amsterdam family.
PermalinkNew record in our online database
15 January 2019
The winter period is quiet in terms of visitors. That is why we are now working on our online database at www.pipemusem.nl, in the meantime renowned and used all over the world. This week we reached a new record: we exceeded the 160,000 unique object photos. Because more and more tacit knowledge is added about the objects and their use, the importance of this database as source of information is still increasing. For many, this bundled knowledge has become the benchmark for the determination of the pipe and that is a compliment to years of dedicated work. However, the job is not yet finished, in our reserves there are still objects waiting to be photographed! For now, we continue the good work.
PermalinkCitycard renewed
5 January 2019
The famous Amsterdam Citycard has changed its design this year. The number of hours that the card is valid is added, together with an attractive skyline of Amsterdam along the bottom. In our museum the Citycard is often used for free access. No less than forty percent of the visitors carry this card with them. We hope to see a lot of these cards again this year!
PermalinkOur Christmas wish
24 December 2018
The Amsterdam Pipe Museum wishes everyone a peaceful and special Christmas and a healthy and happy 2019. Also in the New Year we hope that you will visit our unique museum and our well-equipped museum shop again!
PermalinkNew on the web
21 December 2018
The special collection of pipe moulds from the company Knoedgen from Brée, which our museum bought at the end of August via pipe factory Big Ben, have meanwhile been cleaned, registered and photographed. From now on they can be seen in the online database of our museum. A first study of this material gave a lot of new information about the factory history of Jean-Jacques Knoedgen. For example, it appears that quite a few moulds were originally made in Germany. Quite unexpectedly, tools from Gouda have also been found, for example from Prince, who sold production moulds to Belgium in 1897. However, there is still a lot of puzzling and studying to do before the history of these special set of tools is well mapped and a solid article can appear.
PermalinkJohan de la Court award
12 December 2018
Thirty years ago, Don Duco received from the chairman of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW) the Johan de la Court prize for his scientific research into the history of the clay tobacco pipe. This prize is awarded to people who have distinguished themselves with ground-breaking research on their own initiative. The prize, which in addition to a fine medal consisted of a large amount of money, was intended as an encouragement to continue with studies and publications. After 1988, countless articles and various books by Duco followed. This price certainly had a stimulating effect!
PermalinkA lecture on clay pipes at Vrijburg Conference
7 December 2018
On behalf of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum, Benedict Goes was asked to speak at the so-called Vrijburgh Conference, an annual symposium on Dutch heritage in Brazil. He spoke about the clay pipes that ships of the West India Company carried and are still found by archaeologists along the coasts of Brazil. Since the theme of the day was craftsmanship, the lectures covered apart from the clay pipe also other forms of industry that were imported from the Netherlands such as wall tiles and tools for shipbuilding were discussed. Unexpected was the lecture on cartographer Cornelis Goliath, who traveled from Zeeland to Brazil around 1640 to chart the coast.
PermalinkAgain, Tripadvisor reward
18 November 2018
Our visitors continue to rate the Amsterdam Pipe Museum very positively. This is reflected in the high ranking in Tripadvisor, but also in the Tripadvisor Award that we have received for the fifth years in a row. It turns out that visitors really notice it, it is a decisive factor in the choice to visit us. We will continue to amaze our guests with our exceptional collection and personal tours.
PermalinkAcquisition in meerschaum
16 November 2018
Throughout the year are fixed moments that generate acquisitions. The annual Verzamelaarsjaarbeurs (collectors' fair) in Utrecht is such an event where something remarkable can always be found. This year we purchased a large meerschaum pipe bowl with a lion cut in high relief between the bowl and the stem. It seems that in this animal the Belgian lion is depicted and maybe this pipe was even made in Belgium. Meerschaum pipes still give a lot to discover, so that a somewhat broader study collection is desirable. This pipe bowl will therefore soon be shown on our online collection database under APM 23.901.
PermalinkPipeportal III
15 November 2018
The concept of our Pipe Portal is nearing completion. A new feature has now been added: articles on the web. In this section museums can present their illustrated publications in their entirety. This fulfils a long-cherished wish for our museum that was never realized within the old website, a multilingual version of publications. The first fifty articles have been put on the website in recent weeks. See www.pipeportal.eu for the result.
PermalinkScabious Museum Night
5 November 2018
In the Amsterdam Pipe Museum, Museum Night Amsterdam had a somewhat erotic touch on 3 November 2018. Several examples of frivolous and scabrous depictions on smoking pipes are in our museum, some a little hidden. During the Museum Night, these special objects are extra highlighted. As a special attraction, a central showcase offered a peep show on two special pipes that were recently acquired. These are impressive tobacco pipes from the African Balumbo tribe from Gabon. Both pipes have a length of at least half a meter and show as decoration a more than life-size, wood-carved vulva. At the time such remarkable pipes were smoked as fertility symbols.
PermalinkLooking at Art
1 November 2018
With Benedict Goes in the lead, the charming blogger Sandra Singh made a fascinating YouTube film about the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. In this way she literally brings the museum into the living room of a large group of people for whom a museum visit is not a habit. This mini-docu of 25 minutes has become a serious film with a beautiful overview of our varied collection. Follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad_CbsJakf0&t=1s or visit https://kunstkieken.nl/100-leukste-musea-van-nederland/ (bottom of the page: museums of Amsterdam)
PermalinkAmsterdam City Walk
20 October 2018
Meanwhile, the Amsterdam City Walk is an annual event, where our museum is included in the route. Our canal house is a haven for those who want to have a little rest and simultaneously want to sniff a bit of culture. We also provide a cup of tea or coffee for the walkers. Although most runners keep the pass, the sign is still a calling card for the 14,000 participants! Also look on https://www.amsterdamcitywalk.nl/breng-een-flitsbezoek-aan-een-museum/
PermalinkAround siderolith
13 October 2018
The above title represents an extensive article recently completed by Don Duco. It describes the history of a particular type of ceramic that was especially popular in Germany, used for making pipes among other things. Eugenius Leyhn appears to be the driving force behind this product, but the town of Ruhla has played an important role in its continuation/final production?. In the early nineteenth century, product development led to the improvement of the ceramic shard, with the end result being the production of a new kind of stoneware and even parian ware. Read the article and experience for yourself how much history is hidden behind certain products.
PermalinkFirst presentation Pipeportal
9 October 2018
During the annual conference of the International Pipe Academy, held this year in Gouda, Benedict Goes gave a lecture on the new portal of the global pipe and tobacco museums. This was the first public presentation of this new initiative of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. Some of the international participants tried the portal directly on their smartphone and were full of admiration about this special initiative. Look at: www.pipeportal.eu.
PermalinkDutch Culture
8 October 2018
Specialized researchers always find us again. Today we had four American experts as guests, together with colleagues from the Rijksdienst Cultureel Erfgoed. Professionals from museums, archives and monument conservation in the state of New York were in the Netherlands to study how they can present Dutch culture in foreign countries. Since the founding of New Amsterdam, present-day New York, in 1609 the Dutch influence can no longer be ignored. The Gouda clay pipe, once an important export product, is one of the aspects that it has looked at with interest in our museum.
PermalinkMuseum card more expensive
1 October 2018
The National Museum Card, which more than one million Dutch citizens use, becomes slightly more expensive. The number of tickets sold grew by 35 percent to 1.3 million in 4 years! The number of museum visits also increased: in 2017 there were 31 million visits. That is why the Museum Card also had to become more expensive although this is only 8 percent. If you do not have a Museum card yet, come to our museum and buy one for the price of Euro 64.90. Kids and youth cards now cost Euro 32.45 each. And as the accompanying photo shows, all cards now have a portrait photo!
PermalinkTomahawks
29 September 2018
During the Maand van de Geschiedenis (Month of History) the Amsterdam Pipe Museum pays special attention to the tomahawk. This iconic war pipe of the North American Indians looks dangerous, with an impressive ax under the pipe bowl. Our guides tell the complete story in their tour, because the tomahawk is not only a weapon but also an object with an important symbolic and ceremonial value. Until October 31st our cabinet for objects on temporary view show some nice examples of these Indian tomahawks from our reserve collections.
PermalinkMonth of the library
28 September 2018
Unnoticed behind the scenes, extra work is always done that strengthens the basis of our museum as reference and study collection. From the point of view of efficiency, that work often takes place in blocks. This month our literature file has been updated. Numerous new titles have been imported into the system, complete with a photo of the cover for recognisability. With this work we exceeded the magic limit of 10,000 library titles this month, all of which can be found in the library file on the web. With that number our website is the largest online database for professional literature in the field of smoking!
PermalinkDesigned by Nature
25 September 2018
The Dutch Silver Museum (Nederlands Zilver Museum) in Schoonhoven features the exhibition “Designed by Nature”. Silver objects inspired by or copied from nature, or even natural materials mounted in silver as a proof of creativity of the silver smiths. Five objects from our collection are on loan to this exhibition: two turtle tobacco boxes from 1650, a silver mounted chamois horn and deer horn made into a pipe. The most modern object in our collection is the breathtaking tobacco jar by Jurriën Schiff from 1997, in which an ostrich egg is processed, of course with silver edges. The exhibition runs from 4 October ’18 to 10 June 2019.
PermalinkSpecial acquisition
29 August 2018
Already in 1980, the Royal Pipe Factory Gubbels in Roermond, known for its Big Ben pipes, bought the closing company of Jean-Jacques Knoedgen in the place Brée in Belgium. From that inventory came a group of about 150 press moulds for making clay pipes. Renewed production was never realized. This month the Amsterdam Pipe Museum has bought these metal pipe moulds for out museum collection. A unique opportunity, because it concerns last set of pipe tools in private possession. The cleaning and cataloguing has started although it will take some time before the objects are included in our collection database.
PermalinkExhibition Silver Treasure extended
26 August 2018
The exhibition "The Silver Treasure" in which a series of silver smoking pipes from the bequest of Van Tienhoven-Van Ewijk are shown, is extended for success until the end of the year. The acquisition showcase that has been used for this attracts a lot of attention. Every visitor realizes that a silver pipe is an exceptionally luxurious object. This is underlined by the often artistic design. Only the critical pipe smoker also knows to note that a true smoking experience is not expected from metal, but yes, status is often a matter of comfort.
PermalinkTwo big jobs
15 August 2018
This spring and summer seemingly pass unnoticed. Behind the scenes, however, steady work is being done on two projects. The first is the registration of the Van Tienhoven collection. Studiously, more than 500 objects are described in our database on the computer. The second task is as big: the translation of our Dutch web-published articles to be placed on the new website next year. With the help of native speakers we are working on a completely English-language site on which, among other things, the articles of our curator are made accessible.
PermalinkTreasure guards in the news
4 August 2018
First Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad on 14 July, now Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool published an article entitled ”Treasure guards”. A young photographer has made a photo series of volunteers in smaller museums to show their passion for the collection. In a series of specialized collections, a pipe museum should not be missed. This nice listing is a good advertisement in both Rotterdam and surroundings and in Amsterdam. Undoubtedly this publicity generates new visitors.
PermalinkPipeportal
15 July 2018
The Amsterdam Pipe Museum is taking the initiative to create a international portal to unite all existing museums around pipes and tobacco. Web visitors find in one click where these museum collections are located, complete with address and opening hours. Unique to this initiative is the central database in which objects from all participating museums are collected, so that visitors can get an impression of the collection online. The launch of the new website is expected in the spring of 2019. This project could be started thanks to a generous subsidy from the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and the Mondriaan Fund. To be continued.
PermalinkWords Matter
28 June 2018
The Tropical Museum organized a meeting entitled “Words Matter” about the use of contested or sensitive words in museum texts, such as for example slave or Eskimo. For our museum it is especially important to use the correct indications in our online database. That is why Benedict Goes participated in this study day for professionals. Perhaps the sensitivity of our time goes a bit too far, so you hardly know what you can and cannot use. In any case, we will adjust some terms in our presentations in the coming weeks without affecting the search function of the website.
PermalinkNusantara meeting in Ethnographical Museum Leiden
7 June 2018
Museum Nusantara in Delft had to close and the collection was “de-accessioned”. For the Municipality of Delft this was a task much more difficult than foreseen. After completing this un-natural museum action the whole process was evaluated during a study day in the Museum of World Cultures in Leiden. Since the Amsterdam Pipe Museum also took over a few dozens of objects of the former Delft museum, we attended. Although there was some criticism, we can be satisfied with some rare pipes and fine betel sets, all with a good provenance. All these objects were collected on the spot before 1900!
PermalinkSilver treasure in the Amsterdam newspaper
6 June 2018
Apparently the editors of the Amsterdam Parool newspaper are anti-tobacco. That is why our museum is often ignored by the Amsterdam press. However, our silver treasure or the Van Tienhoven-Van Ewijk bequest did make it to the Amsterdam press. This special acquisition was discussed in a question and answer section. We hope that it will encourage many Amsterdammers to visit the museum.
PermalinkAcquisitions Van Tienhoven-Van Ewijk
4 June 2018
A selection of the pipes of the extraordinary legacy the Amsterdam Pipe Museum obtained from the late Felix van Tienhoven and his deceased wife is now presented as a small exhibition entitled “The Siver Treasure”. In his interest for metal pipes Felix acquired rare silver pipes, French ones for example, but even from Tibet and Georgia. The exhibition gives an impression of the diversity of the collection Van Tienhoven. On show till 26th August 2018.
PermalinkUnexpected meeting
27 May 2018
Internet brings people together, we got the proof this weekend. The grandson of Henk van der Hoef, the most important Dutch pipe collector before World War II, was looking for more information about his grandfather. He actually found it on our website. Telephone contact was the next step and finally we met each other to exchange information. Since our museum owns a large number of pipes formerly owned by Van der Hoef, his grandson presented us some photo albums of the family, containing pictures of the pipe collection in situ. During the 1930’s the proud collector always carried a small album with pictures of his pipes, as a group and in detail. We appreciate the generous gift of Van der Hoef junior as an interesting documentation on this part of our collection.
PermalinkPipe smoking courses
1 May 2018
In contrast to the stressful cigarette smoking, pipe smoking is pre-eminently a calming activity. Relaxed enjoying a fragrant pipe tobacco is for many an ideal way to find rest and contemplation. But then it helps if you know how to handle your pipe, tamper and tobacco. Our smoking courses, which have been given for many years now, contribute to this well-being. During an evening-filling program course leader Benedict Goes makes the (aspirant) pipe smoker known with the tricks of the trade. How to enjoy optimally without inhaling? There are new dates on the program, the first one is already on Thursday 10 May. Enlist through our mail box info@pipemuseum.nl
PermalinkHigh ranking on Tripadvisor
25 April 2018
The Amsterdam Pipe Museum is very popular on Tripadvisor for many years. We have earned the “Certificate of Excellence” year after year. Over the last months we even increased our ranking. Last year the museum was around nr. 62 out of 550 attractions in Amsterdam. Now we are upgraded to nr 23. In the category Museums we perform even better: number 5 of all 150 museums in the Amsterdam area. A top performance for a top museum!
PermalinkThank you!!!
11 April 2018
Today we received by post a big carton box with all kinds of pipes. On top was the note shown here, saying “a pity to through away”. The old pipes smoked by grandpa will have little value, they often remain unsold in the internet. But ... for the Amsterdam Pipe Museum definitely worth to look through. And guess what? One of the pipes has a previously unknown mark, while another can be reused for the restoration of a pipe in our collection. And a part is indeed not really worth keeping, they go to the museum shop and are taken for a euro as a souvenir. All in all a excellent idea to offer your old pipes and other tobacco paraphernalia to our museum. Many thanks to the unknown Anke & Willem Janssen on the note. Here is a call to all other Dutch people who still have some oddities! You are welcome at our place.
PermalinkMuseum Week
9 April 2018
During Museum Week the Amsterdam Pipe Museum is in the picture with a recent acquisition of posh design. It is a mega-sized meerschaum pipe bowl made from a special crystal-like meerschaum, assembled in silver around 1810 for a distinguished Russian officer. The pipe has a massive bowl, equipped with a beautifully forged cover shaped like a military helmet with an impressive comb on top and an embossed trophy of weaponry on both sides. Around the lower edge of the lid the necessary series of air inlets is provided so that the tobacco in this giant bowl can burn evenly. Although the Dutch Museum Association preaches for gold in organizing the Museum Week, gold has rarely been used for smoking pipes. For us this silver-mounted object is the true gold because of the exclusivity. The Museum Week lasts until 15 April.
PermalinkTerra incognita
28 March 2018
The term was first used at the time Benedict Goes wrote his The intriguing design of tobacco pipes. In the 1990’s little was known about pipes of alternative types of lacquered ceramics as developed in Ruhla (Thüringen, Germany) and surrounding places. In the meantime we collected an number of interesting examples to illustrate their diversity. This album presents a small series. Eye-catching are the bright colours in which they are executed, especially red was popular. Quite a few of these pipes were adorned with gilding. Also the addition of a ceramic lid was popular, although most of them got lost because of these fragility. Altogether this material deserves our attention for its specific shaping and colourful finish.
PermalinkMoving smoking pipes in metal
21 March 2018
It took a while but on the first spring day we moved the Van Tienhoven-Van Ewijk collection to Amsterdam, probably the largest collection of metal smoking pipes in the world. For those who are not familiar: Felix and Wijntje van Tienhoven traveled around the world for decades and collected scent bottles as well as smoking pipes. Both passed away in 2016 a few months after each other. The two collections found a dignified accommodation in museums, the first in the ethnographical museum in Leiden, the second in the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. We are very grateful to Felix and Wijntje for this legacy. Because the focus of their collection was mainly on metal, the majority of the material is a welcome addition to our current museum collection. A series of unique objects will be on view as a temporary exhibition for a number of months soon. Later a special showcase for the most representative items from this collection will be set up in the hall of our museum.
PermalinkRoses on the web
20 February 2018
The winter period is clearly quieter than the summer. There is significantly less tourism, so more time for other things. As a result, there has been plenty of time for photography to bring our gigantic digitation project to completion. In December, the acquisitions from 2017 were photographed and loaded on the web. In January and February we worked on the final part: excavated pipes. Over two thousand pictures of clay pipes from the seventeenth century with a stamped heel mark have been added to our database. Especially the profound group of rose marks, with or without a crown and with or without initials, are surprising. Although the most important objects have been virtually presented for a long time, the lesser gods are now also available. The critical visitor can thus discover all sorts of new objects, but above all the search result now yields an even larger number of hits.
PermalinkHampshire smoker’s in Amsterdam
17 February 2018
This Saturday, a group of smokers from the village Greywell in England visited our museum. For years these people meet monthly to smoke a pipe. As many smokers groups a number of people with diverse professions and interests, but the relaxed smoking of a pipe they have in common. This weekend Amsterdam was on the program, of course including a visit to our museum. And just as varied as the group is, so varied was their focus. Some were mainly enthusiastic about historical pipes and their story, while others showed special interest in the modern pipes in our museum shop.
PermalinkAcquisitions on show
31 January 2018
A selection from the acquisitions of the past year can be seen from 2 February till 6 May in a special cabinet at the entrance of the museum. The year 2017 brought a surprising range of objects to broaden and deepen our collection. A highlight is a Haida pipe bowl of stone in the shape of a sitting eagle as we know it from the totem poles. Another special animal is a Chinese water pipe in the shape of a standing heron. A beautiful, extremely long tubular tobacco pipe set with brass nails comes from the Kinga tribe in Tanzania. It was smoked vertically and stuck out above the silhouette of the sitting smoker like a tall chimney. Closer to home are wooden pipes with a harlequin or a solemn bearded man, fine works of wood carving. It is clear that the museum collection is still gaining in importance by adding rare and exceptional objects.
PermalinkFirst acquisition 2018
23 January 2018
From old Dutch possessions our museum bought a striking and remarkable old tobacco pipe from the Batak tribe. This Sumatran people have been making impressive brass smoking pipes for almost two centuries in a lost wax technique. Characteristic is that they are made up of several parts, connected with a wooden plug. The surface of the brass is always decorated with fine geometric patterns, supplemented with some engraving. This is also the case with this tobacco pipe. A special feature of this acquisition is the high age. This is evident from the original, rather understated way the decoration is executed and especially from the fine and attractive patina, result of decades of untouched storage.
PermalinkChristmas and New Year's greeting
22 December 2017
From the Amsterdam Pipe Museum on the Prinsengracht we wish you a merry Christmas and a good, healthy and happy 2018. Of course we hope to welcome you in our museum and our museum shop again in the New Year!
PermalinkAuction Adler collection
14 December 2017
The pipe collection of John Adler, deceased earlier this year, was auctioned yesterday in the English town of Colchester. As a member of a family of pipe manufacturers and traders, Adler has been involved throughout his life in the production and especially the wholesale in pipes in England. In addition to his profession, Adler was also active as a collector. Over the years he brought together a wide range of pipes, although his passion was with meerschaum and briar. Reeman Dansie Auctioneers were now allowed to bring his collection to auction. Despite the late announcement, an international audience was present and the lots were sold for serious prices. For our museum we were able to acquire over sixty items that are a nice reflection of John Adler's passion for the pipe. One of his favorite pieces was a large meerschaum pipe bowl depicting a battle with Napoleon as the central hero.
PermalinkAmsterdam drawings from the 18th Century
16 November 2017
This magnificent drawing of a group artists, sitting in the towing boat heading for Haarlem, is a joy for any pipe aficionado. It was done by the Amsterdam based artist John Greenwood in 1759. If you take a closer look you can see that the pipes they smoke are not the standard Gouda pipes, but these are longer specimen. With the extra long pipes these gentlemen could stand out above the average smoker. This drawing is now part of a fine exhibition in the Amsterdam City Archive. Our museum provided the exhibition with such a oversized clay pipe to make the image more lively. The transport of a fragile 80 centimeters long pipe was a risk, but we passed the challenge. On view till 14 January 2018.
PermalinkMuseum Night 2017
4 November 2017
#Museumnachtamsterdam in the #AmsterdamPipeMuseum had as theme: Sherlock Holmes. This iconic pipe smoker with his characteristic calabash pipe was present in person in our museum. He explained the visitors what marvels can be discovered in the permanent exhibition. The encounter and discussions with Sherlock in his costume showed that the exceptional late opening hours were highly appreciated. In the same style the bar offered English lager and ginger ale. Besides, we could take some fine pictures, shown in this album.
PermalinkMini-expo Calabashes for Sherlock
29 October 2017
On the occasion of the appearance of Sherlock Holmes in our museum during the #Museum Night, we organize a mini-exhibition under the title Calabashes for Sherlock. In a table display case a series of tobacco pipes are shown that in principle could have been smoked by Sherlock Holmes. Characteristic of his pipe is that the pipe bowl is built into the top of a gourd, a specific fruit. Because the opening is wide, a meerschaum insert is made for the bowl. Calabash pipes were mounted with stems of amber, hard rubber or plastic. Silver settings give the luxurious look to these pipes. The calabash pipe owes its popularity mainly to its user comfort. The smoke is pleasantly cooled by the hollow interior space in the gourd. Unfortunately, we cannot offer that smoking experience in our mini-exhibition, that is on view till the end of December.
PermalinkAnnouncement Museum Night
17 October 2017
The new posters for the Amsterdam Museum Night on 4 November have been presented. Smashing design as usually, a future collectors’ item. They are all over the city now! Save the date to meet the real Sherlock Holmes in the Amsterdam Pipe Museum or to make a speed tour through our museum. Also, our bar-tabac is open the full evening.
PermalinkPipe in Art
15 October 2017
Amsterdam Ornis A. Gallery presents a exhibition of paintings under the title The Ideology of Pipe Smoking. It is the work of young artist Bart Kok. He is inspired by a citation of one of his teachers at the St. Lucas Academy in Antwerp. This teacher stated that in his time –talking about the 1950’s – many artists were hanging around in their studios, staring at their own work, smoking a pipe. This reflecting thinking about your own prestations is just what Kok experiences and what he displays in his paintings, giving the tobacco pipe a prominent role. To be seen at Hazenstraat 11, Amsterdam, until 18 November 2017.
PermalinkCity Walk
14 October 2017
The Amsterdam City Walk passed the Amsterdam Pipe Museum for the second time this year. This annual event brings together more than 20,000 walkers, who all saw the mega sign of the museum. Good for our name recognition. Many people already knew the museum, because of our recent participation in a popular TV program on the national television. A nice double result.
PermalinkFour generations Stokkebye
11 October 2017
For four generations the Danish name Stokkebye is related to pipe tobaccos. Since a few years a new line of tobaccos is presented under the name of Erik Peters. Four special mixtures represent the four generations of directors of this firm. While visiting our pipe shop and museum in Amsterdam Erik Stokkebye jr., now working in the US, presented his matching tobacco pipes for the first time in the Netherlands. The designs are based on historic shapes with a modern twist that gives them a refreshing style.
PermalinkDatabse for deaccessioning of museum objects
9 October 2017
Many museums, especially te older ones, have objects that don’t fit in their collection. Today a museum cannot sell an object, just like that, because it is in public ownership. Since a few years the Dutch museums have access to a dedicated website for deaccessioning museum object. It enables to offer objects to other museums. For the first time #AmsterdamPipeMuseum put something on: a French figural pipe, representing ‘the wandering Jew’. Not that the pipe doesn’t fit into the collection, but because it is damaged. Recently we have bought a perfect copy of the same pipe, so the damaged one can be replaced.
PermalinkForty years ago
4 October 2017
Exactly today it is forty years ago that the still young Don Duco visited researcher and collector Sjoerd Laansma. In the nineteen fifties and sixties Laansma who lived in Gouda, studied the pipe industry and collected clay pipes and paraphernalia. His serious interest was encouraged by the last director of the Zenith pipe works founded 1749, the late Dirk van der Want. That adventure resulted in his stencil printed publication on the pipe makers marks of Gouda. Because Laansma shifted his historical interest in other directions in 1977, he offered his collection of pipe makers tools for sale. That opportunity brought our museum a fine set of tools from the famous firm P. van der Want Gzn. The illustrated rare agate polishing tool is part of this group.
PermalinkIn memory of Helperi Kimm
30 September 2017
Last night a commemorative dinner was organized in the famous Amsterdam Hotel Schiller for Tiemen Helperi Kimm who passed away last January. Kimm, for many years secretary of the board of Royal Niemeyer Tobacco, was appointed director of the Nautical Museum and Niemeyer Tobacco Museum in 1981. He rearranged the collection, originally created by Brongers, focusing more on the typical Dutch smoking culture. During dinner fragments of the many TV and film shots of the deceased showed the passion and dedication of this remarkable personality. Over the past years Kimm wrote his opus magnum, a detailed book on the relation of ancient Rome with the Germanic tribes in North-West Europe.
PermalinkMastro de Paja back in the Netherlands
25 September 2017
Italy delivers since many years the top in pipe design, thanks to a group of artisans that produce the most magnificent free-hands and quality serials. This week we met again Alberto Montini, designer at the famous pipe workshop Mastro de Paja in Pesaro (It.). For a few years he took four historic pipes from our collection to recreate into new briar pipes. Unfortunately this well-known pipe maker is no longer represented in Dutch shops. Thanks to our direct contact a new series of high grade pipes is now available in our pipe shop.
PermalinkLuther and Dutch history
22 September 2017
Two exhibitions opened this week in both of which our museum gave objects in loan. For the first, an exhibition on 400 years Luther, the founder of Protestantism, we lend a pipe tamper with depiction of Pope-Devil. This theme illustrates the resistance to the Catholic church that formed the base of the Reformation movement of Luther. The second exhibit is a tobacco pipe with the portrait of William of Orange, founder of the Dutch Republic during the 16th Century, for the exhibition on the highlights of Dutch history. In case you would like to see our objects in their new context: “Luther” is shown in Utrecht until 28 January 2018, “Dutch history” in Open Air Museum Arnhem for the coming years!
PermalinkVoluntary team dinner
14 September 2017
Today we had the annual dinner with our voluntary guides. Of course there is no better place than the main room of our museum, surrounded by the collection of pipes. On the big centre table a multi-course menu was served that enabled our team to socialize in a relaxing atmosphere. We hope that everyone is physically and emotionally strengthened to have again many unexpected and interesting encounters with our museum visitors.
PermalinkUnsmoked from an Antwerp shop
3 September 2017
From the descendants of the former Moeremans pipe shop in Antwerp, closed already since the 1970’s, we recently bought a series of twentieth century pipes executed in pure Belgian taste. It is extraordinary that these pipes have been stored away somewhere before 1940, when the pipes were new, untouched and never been unpacked since. So, this series of pipes is still in mint condition, showing the Belgian taste of the first half of the 20th Century. The illustrated case with four briars has been made by a so-far unknown Belgian maker in a typical Belgian 1930’s design. The lining of the case in fake fur is even more Belgian semi-luxurious. This is an unexpected addition to the pipe smoking culture we try to assemble in our collection.
PermalinkFilming for Dutch TV
22 August 2017
Today a film company for Dutch television made their recordings for a popular program on interiors of remarkable houses. Our building was filmed from the attic to the basement showing how working and living in a canal house can be. Four hours filming for eight minutes of television – that’s how it is. Broadcasted on 2nd October on Dutch TV channel 2. Maybe it will give new visitors?!
PermalinkVisitors give Tripadvisor Award
11 August 2017
Just like last year social media platform Tripadvisor rewarded the Amsterdam Pipe Museum this year an Award for excellent service. We thank our visitors for their positive feed-back that form the base of this recognition. August proves to be the busiest month, as we have noticed for a few years now. Over the past years visitor numbers in August were just over 50% more than the average per month; this year we counted even 63% increase. Our own observation is that so many of our visitors are youngsters. About 2/3 of the visitors is under 30 years of age.
PermalinkGerman tobacco publicity in Dutch taste
5 August 2017
Recently we could buy from a antiquarian in Cologne a series of tobacco wrappers of German tobacco, dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Rarely such inconspicuous printing matters have been preserved, but they give an important view on the tobacco trade and publicity. Striking to see how much influence the tobacco trade from Holland had on German tobacco wrappers. Over a dozen of these pictures are based on Dutch brands, displaying the connection between these two cultures.
PermalinkAgainst discolouring
4 August 2017
Being housed in an historic building demands permanent maintenance. This week the windows of the library got a new protection against UV radiation. There was a reflecting foil for many years already, but this needed replacement in order to guarantee the protection from discoloration of our specialist book collection. Thanks to recent development of the best materials we have full light protection of the incoming sun. Hopefully our heirs over a generation or even more will be thankful.
PermalinkNew milestone in digitizing
29 July 2017
During the reloading of our photos in the online database, we passed the iconic border of thirty thousand objects. As announced two weeks ago all photos were deleted, but now the collection is back on-line, including the 2.000 objects that have been digitized last winter. This means that our collection is digitized for over 96% now, with the exception of a few hundred brass pipe moulds and a series of archaeological finds. These will be photographed next Winter period.
PermalinkPipe maker visits pipe museum
25 July 2017
Some visitors are more into pipes than others. Today we had a highly interested visitor: Roman Peter, a pipe maker, pipe collector and pipe store owner from Switzerland. During a holiday with his family, Roman spent a long time in the museum with all its stories on historic pipes. He was clearly enjoying himself and in the end he bought a fine piece for his collection in our museum shop. Also for us it was most stimulating to share our views with someone who is involved in pipes for so long.
PermalinkNew upload of photos
12 July 2017
Starting today our online collection database will be closed for maintenance. Over the last two years we updated the standard format of our photographs, which means that we need to reload all photos into the database. First step is that all photos will be deleted and then reloaded. This task will take at least two weeks. So, if you want to search our database, you'll have to wait. Finally all information will be back on-line, including the most recent photos.
PermalinkArticle on Cameroon tobacco pipes
20 June 2017
Our curator Don Duco published an article on figural tobacco pipes from Cameroon in the yearbook of the Society for Friends of Ethnographic Art. The Amsterdam Pipe Museum houses a large collection of these pipes, of which sixteen were selected. They represent the styles in which these pipes were made showing the craftsmanship of the Grassland people. We hope this article will generate a larger interest in the pipe as a form of applied art amongst the ethnographic collectors.
PermalinkBuy your museum card on our website
16 June 2017
Over a million people in our country have got one: the museum-card. This simple card gives free access to over 500 registered museums all over the Netherlands. For that reason it is a must-have to get into these treasure houses of unique artwork and historic objects to find out their stories. The museum-card is for sale in our museum. From today on it is also possible to order the card directly through our website (visitor’s page). We hope you will use our link when buying.
PermalinkMuseum Register
15 June 2017
Our museum is listed as 'registered museum', meaning that all functions, both public and behind the screens, are checked and in good order: the board, finances, policy, collection plans, etc. Every five years the whole list is rechecked during the so-called reassessment. This time the assessment took a long time because the bureau doing this was overworked. But, this week our museum was re-listed in the national museum register to be found at www.museumregisternederland.nl. Also there is a formal diploma.
PermalinkAmsterdam Pipe Museum acquires a pipe with cannons
9 June 2017
Recently our museum managed to buy in Paris a most exceptional pipe: the marshal’s pipe. This meerschaum pipe from about 1830 is fitted with a full silver lid holding a cannon, with eight gun barrels around. If the pipe is in use, smoke comes from the cannons all around. This kind of exclusive tobacco pipes were made as a gift to high officers in the French army. For these man in uniform such high-end pipes were one of the rare items to distinguish themselves. This exceptional acquisition will be showcased in the museum the coming months.
PermalinkPipe Museum and Bach’s tobacco cantata on TV
15 May 2017
The second episode of the new program Museumstukken (Museum items) on local and regional television, covers the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. Apart from a short tour along the collection by Midas Meester and Benedict Goes we see something special: a performance of the Tobacco Cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. Elma Dekker sings this very appropriate song, accompanied on clavichord by Laurens de Man.
PermalinkThirty years ago
5 May 2017
Today it is exactly thirty years ago that English pipe collectors and researchers from the Society for Clay Pipe Research (SCPR) visited Holland. The program listed a visit to our museum at that time in Hof Meermansburg in Leiden, next to a trip to Gouda. One of the highlights was a visit to museum De Moriaan (blackamor) exhibiting the history of the Gouda pipe. The same day we also visited the workshop for modern ceramic pipes of Adrianus van der Want. Two topics that do not exist anymore. What remains however, are the pipes donated to our museum collection found in Bristol and made by Richard Ring. These items still can be found in our reserve collection. One of them is illustrated here.
PermalinkSouth-African wood
29 April 2017
The Xhosa tribe in South-Africa, formerly also indicated as Kaffer, has developed a special tradition in pipe making. For over two centuries they use a local wood to carve tobacco pipes in a specific shape. The standard shape is a long stem with a high cylindrical bowl, with a small heel underneath referring to the Dutch clay pipe. Since the wood is not fire-resistant, the interior of the bowl is lined with sheet metal. The mouthpiece is quite particular, made of a different wood, contrasting in colour. While the pipe can be transferred to another person, the mouthpiece is strictly personal and even of magical value. Except for the standard shapes, all kinds of geometrical pipe designs are made. For instance with a stem in a non-functional, but quite funny angle or with a circular decoration around the bowl, giving the pipe a very distinctive silhouette. Furthermore added decorations of coloured beads are popular.
PermalinkBirthday of a collection object
24 April 2017
The royal set of tressed clay pipes that adorn our museum since decades is also called the "Queens braids". Today exactly one hundred twenty years ago Princess Wilhelmina and her mother Queen-Regent Emma paid a visit to the city of Gouda. A year before the coronation of the Princess, in April 1897 mother and daughter were present at the special demonstration of his craft by the master pipe maker at Goedewaagen's pipe works. After all this time, the tressed pipes are still as new, presented in the museum in a royal gilded frame.
PermalinkPromotional film for Amsterdam Pipe Museum
22 April 2017
This week our loyal volunteer IJsbrand van Dijk finished a promotional film about our museum. A nice piece of work that features the versatile approach toward pipes of the museum. We hope that this three-minute video, that also will be shown on YouTube, will contribute to the popularity of our museum and its collections.
PermalinkNaked women back from Groningen
12 April 2017
Today the Nautical Museum in Groningen brought back our objects on loan. The most erotic pipes from our collection have been on show at the exhibition ‘Prostitution in the A-Quarter’. Porcelain pipes of naked women used to be part of this notorious neighborhood. And look at the cat that is nibbling at a phallus. From now on these images that are not for everybody’s eyes will be stored away in the dark of our reserves until a next loan request comes in.
PermalinkOur real gold
10 April 2017
During the Museumweek photos were made of visitors to the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. Each of them holding a picture frame before their favorite object. It is obvious: as many visitors, as many beloved objects. Look for the series on our Facebook page
PermalinkA special bequest
5 April 2017
Totally unexpected we received today an e-mail message saying that the Amsterdam Pipe Museum is bequeathed with a pipe collection. It's about the collection of Felix van Tienhoven, a Dutch collector who passed away. Felix had a special interest in tobacco pipes, completely or partly made out of metal. His stay in Japan for several years gave rise to this focus. The scope of his collection extended finally to pipes from all parts of the world as long as they are made in metal. We will keep you posted on the follow-up.
PermalinkObjects transferred
3 April 2017
The Amsterdam Pipe Museum, being a registered museum, got the chance to select objects from the collections of Museum Nusantara in Delft that closes down. For over a century this was the museum on the Indonesian archipelago, with a unique collection. Fifty objects, all related to smoking and betel chewing, are being transferred to our museum. Today these objects arrived in Amsterdam, packed in big boxes. Over the coming weeks they will be cleaned and registered, and eventually added to our database. This is a fine addition to our collection of the Dutch East-Indies. Illustrated is a rare hand spittoon from Karawang, West-Java. This fragile object, probably the only surviving from the nineteenth century, was already acquired in 1894 by the predecessor of the Nusantara museum.
PermalinkMuseumweek
1 April 2017
From 1 to 9 April it will be Museum-week all over Holland. The endless series of treasures preserved in the Dutch museums are advertised as ‘our real gold’. As a highlight of our collection we show this week a pipe not with gold but with mother of pearl made in a priceless craftsmanship. It is a Hungarian made wooden pipe from the 1840’s.The surface of this pipe is covered all over with tiny pieces of cut silvery shell in a fine geometric pattern, including three small coat of arms in hart shapes with miniature double headed eagles, the imperial sign. For this year this recent acquisition functions as one of our precious objects, our ‘real gold’.
PermalinkPipe Marks recorded
24 March 2017
During the last part of the Winter session of photography we recorded the heel marks of the oval pipe bowls from Gouda. These trademarks, in diameter measuring less than half a centimeter, are really dull, but since photos are made with a good macro lens you can study them in detail. Combined with the reference book by Don Duco on Gouda pipe makers and their marks, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum offers a unique set of information. With this study collection any archaeologist, professional and amateur alike, will be able to date and identify pipe finds in their ground layers.
PermalinkThe new watermark is getting common
17 March 2017
Since three years our museum changed its name from Pijpenkabinet into Amsterdam Pipe Museum. The photographs in our collection database still show the old name as a watermark. These watermarks are included in the photo using a special formula in the image processing. So, our name change made that we have to change also many thousands of photographs. We are working on this specific job now. If you enlarge one of the pictures in the database you’ll find more and more the new name. This all for the branding of our museum name.
PermalinkExhibition of acquisitions extended
12 March 2017
Our small exhibition of the fine set of acquisitions of 2016 has been extended until 12 June. This is caused by the photography work we did during the Winter that has not finished yet, which makes that we don't have time to prepare a new exhibition. While work behind the screens continues, the most attractive purchases of last year can be seen for another three months. If you can, take the opportunity!
Permalink‘It’s a men’s world’
10 March 2017
The Museum of Bags and Purses along Herengracht in Amsterdam opens today an exhibition on bags specifically for men, entitled "It’s a men’s world". The bags are related to the typical men’s activities such as hunting, traveling and office work. For each type of bag we selected a suiting smoking pipe from our collection that is presented in the exhibition in the Museum of Bags. For example pipes carved out of a piece of deer antler with hunting scenes. And a fine crocodile leather case to keep your pipe and tobacco, together with a classy pipe as would have been smoked in the 1950’s. Do not forget to visit this interesting exhibition!
PermalinkBriar makers marks
24 February 2017
Like the marks on clay tobacco pipes, marks on briar pipes are also collectable. They do not origin from excavations, but can be found on flea markets or on the internet. Worldwide collectors are looking for them and try to trace the makers and their period. You might expect that everything is known of these relatively modern marks, but that is not true. Marks came into use and after a certain time they were changed for others, hence tracing back the owners is often not so easy but that is of course a part of the fun. To inspire, this album shows a series of makers marks, to illustrate their variety.
PermalinkUnique donation
18 February 2017
A visitor of today was Jill Mills from Chatham, New Jersey, USA. She is a descendent of the famous pipe carver Stanley Jarka, of whom we have a wonderful set of pipes made in the 1970’s. Other members of the family have been visiting us over the years for admiring the creations of wood artist Stanley. Jill brought an envelope with some drawings, not to special but too good to throw away. It proved to be the original designs for the pipes in our museum. She could not have imagined how thrilled we were to see these drawings and decided to leave them as a donation. This fulfills a great wish to better document the background of these rare pipes.
PermalinkPorcelain photographed
9 February 2017
Last two weeks we produced several hundreds of photographs of the porcelain pipe bowls, the so-called ‘German stummel’ that are on permanent display in the front room of the museum. Reason that they haven’t been digitized yet is the time-consuming work of dismantling the showcases, a job that has to be done outside the regular opening hours. So, during the early morning and late evening we took on this task, which resulted in a great series of pictures. In remounting the porcelain pipes, we took the opportunity to replace some of them for newly acquired examples, for a better composition, more logical order and more attractive over-all esthetic result.
PermalinkBach at the museum
26 January 2017
Today we had an unusual experience at the museum, not with regular visitors but with two musicians. Singer Elma Dekker performed together with Lourens de Man on electronic clavichord the Tobacco cantata by Johan Sebastian Bach. The famous Bach wrote this song in 1734 on the words of a humoristic poem that reads: "Each time I take my tobacco pipe, well filled with fine canister...". In the museum the performance was a test, to be repeated on another occasion for a real audience and of course with a real clavichord. We have experienced that the museum not only has a splendid collection, but also excellent acoustics.
PermalinkFirst acquisition in 2017
20 January 2017
Our first buy this year is a heavy object, literally. It is a printing block consisting of a thick lead plaque, shaped and engraved, nailed on a firm wooden board. It has been used to print paper tobacco bags. This printing block is unusual in its size, over 16 cm high. It is meant for printing a large size package of finely cut Frisian ‘baay-tobacco’. The image is the famous tobacco brand of the white bear in oval framing. The plate doesn’t include the name of the shop or tobacco cutter, that would have been printed separately on the back. The white bear appears as a tobacco brand in the eighteenth century, but this printing block dates from the first half nineteenth century in Leeuwarden. This item is a welcome addition to a set of printing plates for tobacco wrappers in our museum.
PermalinkChristmas wish
24 December 2016
Amsterdam Pipe Museum wishes all its relations a prosperous 2017. We hope to welcome you in our museum and our museum shop again in the New Year.
PermalinkMedicinal pipe
14 December 2016
In an article written this month entitled The medicinal pipe of the Maasai, rite or rubbish? Don Duco discusses a remarkable acquisition of the Pijpenkabinet. It is a bone pipet that is said to have been used by medicine-men of the African Maasai tribe,a nomadic tribe who live near Lake Victoria. Read the article and form your own opinion non this remarkable object. The semi smoking pipe bought by our museum will be kept as evidence of this special form of tourist art. It will be the start of exposing other local smoking pipes as items for tourists and that way get a better image of the world wide culture of pipe smoking.
PermalinkDiscussion private museums
8 December 2016
Every month, a current theme on museums is discussed with colleagues and interested parties in the Salon Museologie. This time the theme was the private museums: Do they have more options due to their independence? Do they have better prospects for the future? On behalf of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum, Benedict Goes participated in the forum on these themes. It became clear that our museum takes its task very seriously, for example by being registered since 2006. In a short PowerPoint, the museum contrasted positively with the others.
PermalinkOld pipe collection on sale
11 November 2016
In Deuil-la-Barre, a poche Parisian suburb, a pipe collector lived until the 1980’s. He started with the collection of his father and continued himself in searching for additional acquisitions. After his death his daughter kept the collection of her father and grandfather, exposed in a grand oval neo-Louis-XVI table showcase. Now she has died on her turn, the collection comes up for sale. Last Tuesday was the final day at a local auction house. 110 Lots from this two-generation collection were auctioned. The Amsterdam Pipe Museum was present and able to buy a fine series of pipes of varied nature. Follow our online database where, within a few weeks, all objects will be published including photo and determination.
PermalinkMuseum night again well attended
7 November 2016
The Amsterdam Museum Night was again a big success. This year we had a lot of foreign visitors, Fortunately, all our volunteers speak at least four languages, so even the Italians were addressed in their own tongue. The great hit was the tasting of snuff tobacco. Nobody ever tried this, so it was a unique experience. At first quite a shock, but the aftertaste was extremely pleasant. Our bar-tabac was surprising with all the tobacco- and smoke related drinks and food.
PermalinkYour pinch is ready!
1 November 2016
From the Museum-N8 editorial office: In the Amsterdam Pipe Museum at Prinsengracht 488 you can not only look, you can also taste delicious drinks such as a smoked beer, but you can also use your nose. Our theme is snuff tobacco and there is a pinch for every visitor!
PermalinkSpecial purchase for Amsterdam museum
28 October 2016
The Amsterdam Pipe Museum made a special purchase at the well-known and frequently visited Tribal Art Fair in De Duif in Amsterdam. Ethnographic traders from the Netherlands and other countries come to De Duif every year with ethnological objects of good quality. The Amsterdam Pipe Museum bought a rare pipe on the very first day. It is a figural tobacco pipe in the shape of a saddled horse, made by the Indians in the Plains of Central America. The material they traditionally use for their pipes is catlinite, a fairly soft red stone that can be cut and polished smoothly. In addition to the well-known peace pipe, there is another but rare type of pipe with a horse head. Horses were precious to the Indian tribes and important for the bison hunt, which is why they were depicted on ceremonial objects. In this case, the saddle, in stylized design, is shown behind the horse's head. The pipe was purchased from an American gallery. No wonder that they are able to offer this fine piece, since such native American objects are rarely traded in Europe. The red stone pipe was made by the Sioux and is now sold from an American collection to an Amsterdam museum. Here in Amsterdam, the pipe is a fine addition to the ever growing sub-collection of pre-Columbian and native American pipes.
PermalinkYoungest museum visitor
21 October 2016
Today the Amsterdam Pipe Museum welcomed it's youngest visitor ever. This cute little boy lives in Amsterdam and was accompanied by his Rumanian father. During his young life he has already visited over two-hundred museums!. Apart from that he proves to be a born photo model.
PermalinkPipe smoking course
20 October 2016
Pipe smoking is the art of smoking for the taste, the aroma, not for the nicotine. But smoking a pipe is not an easy thing to do. There is some technique required: firstly filling your pipe properly, then lighting it, smoking quietly ... In a one evening course you will learn all the ins and outs of a good smoke with taste experience by doing. This includes enjoying different flavours of tobacco. Sign up by an email to mailto:info@pipemusem.nl. The evenings start at 8 pm and last until about 11 pm. The costs are 25 euros per person.
PermalinkNew sign
12 October 2016
Now the paintwork has been done, the visibility of the museum can be improved. A tailor-made sign fitting in the railing of the doorstep on the front door shows on both sides the museum logo. Since our two doors, one in the basement and one on top of the five steps on the main floor, caused some confusion, we added an indication that the entrance to the museum is through the shop.
PermalinkNew store name on the façade
30 September 2016
After painting the façade, the entrance of our museum and shop is provided with a new name. The old but popular Smokiana pipeshop has been changed for the new name: Amsterdam Pipe Shop as a logo above the door. It is bizarre for as a museum, but this logo may not be a permanent inscription, only a temporary one. At night the text is not allowed to hang, so we remove our name in the evening to hang it back the next morning. Municipal rules are strange. There used to be a cheerful flag, nowadays flags are not allowed anymore. In a later regulation the municipality forbade the letters Pipeshop on our sign so we had to remove these. At the same time, it is allowed nowadays to put your company name is separate letters, so that façades are destroyed with countless holes without mercy. We do not find this choice an option for our historic brickwork.
PermalinkWithout scaffolding
21 September 2016
After four weeks of hard work the painting of all the woodwork at the front is finished. All window frames are well painted in the typical Amsterdam colors canal green and sandstone yellow. Extra task was the restoration of the two series of ridge-tiles, which are now smooth again. The museum housing may be seen again. Let the visitors come!
PermalinkCigar box labels
9 September 2016
Examples of fine printing art are the labels used to decorate wooden cigar boxes. In our museum collection an impressive range of these labels can be found, bringing back the romantic feeling about cigar smoking from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Special about these items is the incredible craftsmanship that these small lithographs show, in sparkling colors often in blind print including details in real leaf gold. To our online collection database a series of new examples have been added this month. Who wants to escape the crude everyday life can dream away in imaginary clouds of cigar smoke by looking for an endless series on www.pipemuseum.nl using the search name kistetiket. This presentation shows a dozen representative examples of these small pieces of art.
PermalinkExhibition on snuff tobacco
27 August 2016
The fall exhibition of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum is dedicated to smokeless tobacco or snuff. A series of snuffboxes, from simple to very luxurious, comes from our own reserves. Really sensational are the fine snuff rasps, used by the rich in the 18th century to grate tobacco into snuff powder. The wooden or ivory holder is finely carved with elegant scenes. This time the museum offers its visitors the ultimate snuff experience: you can take snuff yourself! How sensational, you leave the museum with a tickling nose.
PermalinkBehind scaffolding
24 August 2016
As every house, also the museum needs a repaint. Today a huge scaffolding is being built at the front gable. It will be quite a task: window frames on four floors and the enormous wooden gable cornice. The last one hasn't been painted for years, so that needs extra attention. Probably all the old paint has to be removed. The scaffolding is even high enough to reach the typical Amsterdam lifting beam and hook. Needless to say: museum and museum shop will be open as usual.
PermalinkThe prunus as an alternative smoking equipment
28 July 2016
Talking about wooden pipes, you think of briar, the magical heather root from the Mediterranean area. Yet it is not the only type of wood from which pipes are made. In a recently written article, Don Duco discusses tobacco pipes and cigar holders made from an alternative type of wood: the prunus or the wood from the plum, peach or cherry. In addition to simple cigar holders, numerous tobacco pipes have been produced. On the one hand, their style follows the line of French briar, characterized by a handy size and a practical design. In addition, the German Gesteckpfeife was a source of inspiration, which led to pipes with a more artificial silhouette composed of several parts. The most remarkable, however, are the figural specimens carved from whimsical pieces of cherry wood. They show attractive folk art scenes, often with mask heads and portraits. These unusual pipes are the curiosities in the category of cherry wood pipes.
PermalinkPortraits from Belgium
8 July 2016
This time in the series photo galleries a dozen pipes from the spare collection of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. It concerns clay pipe bowls with heads originating from Belgium, mainly from the river Meuse region. Especially in the factories Wingender and Knoedgen the production of such clay pipes flourished between 1850 and 1900. Over the decades, both factories built up a special collection with a preference for character and fantasy figures. With their clay pipes they served the simple smoker who was out on a slightly cheaper pipe because they could not afford the real quality.
PermalinkTripadvisor award for the museum
6 June 2016
The reviews about the Amsterdam Pipe Museum on travel-site Tripadvisor continue to be positive. This resulted in an award: the Certificate of Excellence 2016. This means that the Amsterdam Pipe Museum is reviewed very positive by its visitors. They like the special service of our personal tours, the collection, the historic setting and the amazing shop.
PermalinkGift from a grateful visitor
30 May 2016
The Amsterdam Pipe Museum attracts many foreign visitors. A Portuguese visitor was so excited about the collection that he wished to support the museum. A week later a package arrived by post, containing four pipes as a donation to the museum collection. His father received these pipes in the '60 in Angola, which was at the time a Portuguese province. At that time it was a wonderful gesture from a satisfied patient, now it is a nice compliment to our museum! The moment was extra special, having a mini-exhibition on Angola pipes now.
PermalinkSpecial pipes from Angola
12 May 2016
From 12 May until 20 August 2016 Amsterdam Pipe Museum has ”Special pipes from Angola" as an exhibition of objects from our reserves. Local Angolese tribes as the Ovimbudu, Tschokwe and Songo carved pipes out of softwood. To prevent the wood from burning, the inner bowl is covered with sheet metal. Special feature of these tribal pipes are the figural carvings on the stem, such as masks or sitting persons. To get a cool smoke, these wooden bowls were attached to long iron stems. Other tribes used more practical, short stemmed smoking pipes using the same materials.
PermalinkPipe tools
6 May 2016
A trivial item is the pipe tool, a handy three-in-one instrument, indispensable for the pipe smoker. Over several generations it has been in use, starting as a simple pipe tamper or pipe cleaner. By 1920 the practical instrument was introduced, combining stopper and cleaning devices. The tamper is used during smoking, the pricker and spoon when the pipe is empty for scraping out the bowl and keeping the stem open. Pipe tools exist in varieties, a dozen of which are shown in this chapter. Most common is the mass produced instrument from the Check Republic, of which many millions have been sold. Opposite is a luxurious pen shaped instrument in briar wood, unscrewed showing the tools, where pricker and scraper are combined. Collectors look for these implements and enjoy bringing together the minimal varieties.
PermalinkCuriosities of pipe clay from the Westerwald
30 April 2016
In recent years, curator Don Duco has taken a closer look at the sub-collection of pipe clay figurines in the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. Early figurines since the 16th century were described in the first introductory article. After that the intererst was focussed on by-products in various Western European pipe producing centres. In the third and last article, by-products from the Westerwald are discussed. In the Rhine area the activity flourished and grew into an important industry in the early twentieth century. These statuettes are certainly trivial, but once collected and documented, this material sheds light on a curious piece of history of an industry that has since fully disappeared.
PermalinkMuseum week: Our real gold
17 April 2016
Last year the traditional Museumweekend was changed into a Museumweek. This year we participate in this successful event with a 7 days opening, highlighting a spectacular pipe - a recent acquisition. For this week only we exhibit a grand French meerschaum pipe: the tobacco pipe that was presented by the French King Louis Philippe to one of his army officers. The elaborate silver lid supports a canon an two piles of bullets. If you press a small knob on the lid, a second, hidden lid appears with a portrait medal of the king himself. On view till Sunday April 24.
PermalinkModern silver tobacco jars
14 April 2016
On 17th April 2016 the exhibition "Silver art in the Netherlands" opens at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, in which the artistic possibilities of silver are explored along examples of contemporary Dutch designed large silver objects. Our museum has given four tobacco jars in loan. These pots, part of a series of twelve, are modern interpretations of the traditional tobacco jar that are commissioned by mr Peter Becker in 1997. If you like to see these original artworks within the scope of contemporary silver design you can visit the museum in The Hague up to 21 August 2016. A splendid exhibition!
PermalinkOn front page of Cigar Journal
18 March 2016
The Amsterdam Pipe Museum exhibition on the pipe designs by Jean Perron is well received by the press. Within two days the news was on the front-page of one of the largest online smoking magazines, the Cigar Journal. This American produced magazine is spread among cigar aficionados and other tobacco consumers all over the world. A more specific target group was reached through the website of the Pipe Club of Italy, that published the exhibition in the same week. We can conclude that we did well by sending out our press review internationally.
PermalinkFound exactly half a century ago
16 March 2016
This decorated clay pipe bowl was about two hundred years old at the moment it was found by Don Duco in March 1966. Just an accidental found in deposited soil in the Westerleestraat in Amsterdam. At that moment it was the most beautiful found from this piece of land. Today it is exactly 50 years ago that the founder of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum did this find, and consequently the most ancient object in the museum. After a few years this pipe has been exhibited for five years in the Pijpenkamer at Frederiksplein in Amsterdam. Later it was on loan to the State Museum for Antiquities (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden) in Leiden, where it was part of the permanent presentation. These must have been the finest hours for this small pipe bowl; since 1993 it is well-kept but hidden in the museum reserves.
PermalinkJean Perron rediscovered
14 March 2016
The discovery of a cardboard case holding eighty pages of hand drawn designs urged us to show this recent acquisition in a small exhibition in the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. It is a tribute to a talented pipe maker and artist who, after one and a half century, appears from the oblivion of history by this recent rediscovery. His name Jean Perron appears as a tiny signature on one of the pages, that show his artistic talent in his fine drawings. He was active as a pipe designer and carver in Paris in the 1860-1875 period. The discovery of this case gives a fully new insight in the French production of meerschaum pipes. The exhibition "Jean Perron rediscovered" ends May 7 2016.
PermalinkA personalized entree ticket
11 March 2016
Especially the ardent pipe smoker and enthusiast pipe collector will look forward to a visit of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. Today we received such a visitor. His loving spouse made him as a gift at home a self-created entree ticket for our museum. Understandable if you live as far as New Zealand. As you can imagine the visit of the family was a great success.
PermalinkCultural blog
8 March 2016
The young cultural minded crowd has a new blog that informs about art, culture, music and film. It is called Cleeft. One of the reporters visited the Amsterdam Pipe Museum and wrote a nice text entitled "Museum extraordinaire". That is exactly what it is, isn't it? A original and artistic photo shoot illustrates the story. You find the whole article on https://www.cleeft.nl/kunst/fotoreportage_museum-extraordinaire-amsterdam-pipe-museum
PermalinkEmbossed pipes on the web
26 February 2016
In our digitation project we photographed this month the eighteenth century embossed clay pipes. The decorated Gouda pipes are an important group in the extensive archaeological collection of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. Up to now the archaeological collection has been only partly visible on the web, but finally we could catch up. Over two hundred pipe bowls from the heyday of the Gouda pipe production are made public by putting them on the web. Later this spring we envision to photograph the seventeenth century pipes. Together these groups form an important addition to our database for all amateur and professional archaeologists.
PermalinkPublication on small museums
26 January 2016
Today the first copy of a nice booklet was presented to Paul Spies, director of the Amsterdam Museum. Entitled 9 kleine museum in Amsterdam (9 small museums in Amsterdam), the booklet gives an introduction in text and images to a number of less well-known museum around the city. It is an initiative of the same foundation that did the street exhibition last year (see news 4 September 2015). This photo exhibition was so well received that this issue is a logical follow-up. Of course, the booklet is available from the Amsterdam Pipe Museum.
PermalinkFirst acquisition in 2016
24 January 2016
As usually, also in this year we continue to look actively for acquisitions. At the start of a new year you never know what will come up. In the mean time, we got our first acquisition: a painted porcelain name-pipe from North-Netherlands origin. The slender porcelain bowl shows prominently the name of "FRIKKE W. MOLACH GEB. DEN 15. MAART1832" (born 15 March 1832). The Christian name is somewhat unusual but typical for the Groningen province. We have been able to trace that Frikke was born in Westeremden and buried in Uithuizermeden. Further research can unveil his profession. For now, it is a rare and fine porcelain bowl for a Dutch local smoker.
PermalinkOver 130.000!
8 January 2016
Right at the start of this year we reached a new record with our website: 130.000 photographs are placed on our site! With this number we filled in the limits of our site capacity. The number and sizes of the files are so enormous that we now need to orientate to hire extra disk-space from the provider in order to expand. At this moment such an investment is not relevant, since we offer more than enough information with photo’s and detail pictures of 27.000 objects.
PermalinkBest Wishes
23 December 2015
At the end of 2015 we wish all our website and Facebook-friends and further relations a good and prosperous 2016 with this Christmas decoration adorned with cute miniature pipes.
PermalinkExhibition on Goedewaagen
16 November 2015
The local museum - Streekmuseum Krimpenerwaard - in Krimpen aan den IJssel, just south of Rotterdam, organizes an exhibition on the Goedewaagen pipe and ceramic factories in Gouda: Goedewaagen - veelzijdig aardewerk (mixed ceramics). Many private collectors lent their pottery. The pipe production is represented by a large series of loans from the Amsterdam Pipe Museum, both pipes and documents. The exhibition runs from 17 November 2015 to 27 February 2016, open Tuesday thru Saturday.
PermalinkSuccessful edition of MuseumNight 2015
9 November 2015
The second time the Amsterdam Pipe Museum participated in the Amsterdam Museum Night was again a positive event. Despite of the rainfall in the early hours of the evening, we received almost 400 visitors till closing time at 2AM. Apart from the drinks and bites, our program consisted of a repeated lecture on the pipe smoker and his choice for a particular shape or type of pipe. The examples of well-known pipe smokers made it easily recognizable for the public.
PermalinkInteresting poster design museum night
2 November 2015
Each year a special publicity campaign is designed for the Amsterdam museum night. This year one of our sexy pipes has the lead in this campaign: a design from the 1930's in which the stem is shaped as a lady's leg, with the tobacco chamber in the thigh. This pipes is used in both a full-size poster and a video, in which confetti comes out of the pipes instead of smoke. A really original publicity for our museum.
PermalinkAmsterdam Pipe Museum in American Pipes Magazine
24 October 2015
The news about the Vincent van Gogh exhibition in Amsterdam spreads quite far. We saw it on the front page of the website PipesMagazine.com, probably the most important online magazine for pipe smokers in the world. See for the complete article online: http://pipesmagazine.com/blog/pipe-shows/vincent-van-gogh-pipe-smoking-exhibit-in-amsterdam/
PermalinkNight owls
20 October 2015
According to Tom Kieft, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum is probably the museum with the most swag in Amsterdam. Imagine yourself as a classic womanizer like Harry Mulisch or Prince Bernhard and make your way through the night.
The Museum Night for pipe lovers
The former Amsterdam Pipes Room (and later the Pipes Cabinet) was renamed the Amsterdam Pipe Museum in 2013 for the purpose of international promotion and at the expense of a number of easily accessible jokes. This small canal house museum on the Prinsengracht is an ideal stopover on Museum Night. On 7 November the Amsterdam Pipe Museum is more than just the wet dream of every pipe lover; you can enjoy delicious local sausages here and quench your thirst with bottled German beer . This beer is not your average Oettinger pilsner, but a smoked beer. And no, smoked beer is not a bottle filled with cigarette butts, but a beer made from smoked hops. I can tell you: fucking nice and especially for our "more-hop-is-hip IPA lovers", it is a must to come and taste this hip hop beer.
Traditional likes
Even if smoked beer, sausages or the beautiful building are not convincing, the collection and the accompanying explanations give sufficient reason to visit this site on November 7. Throughout the evening, museum staff are ready to tell you all about the pipe collection of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. This collection ranges from 500 BC to the present, from the first South American tobacco pipes to nineteenth-century European pipes, from Turkish shishas to Chinese opium pipes. You will learn that pipes are more than just pleasure instruments. There are French pipes in the museum with pictures of favourite writers, a kind of traditional "like" to inform friends and strangers about your literary preferences. With other pipes in the museum, the shape of the pipe has an even more important public function. For example, the gigantic chief pipes from Cameroon are, in addition to smoking equipment, objects to express power: the owner of the largest pipe has the most power. So even with pipes: size does matter!
Characteristic pipes
The museum curator will talk twice in the evening about well-known twentieth-century pipe smokers such as writer Harry Mulisch and Prince Bernhard, their favourite pipes and how the specific pipes of these gentlemen match their character. If you are inspired by all this beauty and you want to acquire a pipe for yourself, you are at the right place, because in addition to a pipe museum, this building also houses a well-equipped pipe shop. On the ground floor of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum you can buy a pipe, with which you can parade with swagger to the next museum.
An article in a hipster blog
7 October 2015
A group of young culture aficionados in Amsterdam is writing a blog on theater, film and museums that they visit. In November they will have an active role in the famous Amsterdam Museum Night. Their blog is called Nachtbrakers and features a wide variety of cultural events. In September we had the pleasure of a visit by Tom, one of these bloggers. He wrote a dazzling and inspiring article on the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. We are curious to experience how his readers will react!
PermalinkColourful Belgian pipes
5 October 2015
From our museum collection we show a dozen of pipes with a special finish in colourful marble glaze. All examples are press moulded clay pipes with transparent glaze. A lot of speculation about these pipes is given. Writers thought that it is Whieldon ware from England and should date from the eighteenth century. The finish is however characteristic for two workshops in Belgium: Félix Wingender from Chokier and Jean-Jacques Knoedgen in Brée. This technique of glazing was their specialty. The pipes became much more attractive, although with that finish also the p[rice went up considerably. After the first baking the pipes were glazed and thereafter placed on a stand went into the kiln for a second time. Then it was important that the temperature was well looked after, when to hot, the glaze dripped of the pipe, when cooling down to fast the shine would disappear.
PermalinkMuseum in the Museum Times
15 September 2015
The Museum Times is an informative blog on museums in and outside our country, written by an expat living in Amsterdam. The September issue featured an extensive article about the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. This happened after a visit of editor Elisabeth Joss, who was really enthusiastic about the house and its collections. Any publicity in such a special-interest online magazine is very important for our museum in order to reach those specific target groups.
PermalinkCongrats to Van Gogh
5 September 2015
The Amsterdam Pipe Museum congratulates – together with all other museums in town - the Van Gogh Museum with the opening of the newly built entrance building. All Amsterdam museums have offered Axel Rüger, director of the Van Gogh Museum, a sunflower with a personal message.
PermalinkPipes in Amsterdam City Centre
4 September 2015
The Sint Antoniesbreestraat is one of the oldest streets in Amsterdam and is provided with a series of twenty-eight showcases at both sides of the street. During the months September to November an open-air-exhibition will be organized of nine Amsterdam museums with a specialized and interesting collection. The Amsterdam Pipe Museum takes part in this project, as initiated by a local NGO that works for the well-being of the inner city inhabitants. Our museum is represented by a series of photos of the museum and its collection. A short introduction will point pedestrians in the street to our special museum.
PermalinkFull newspaper page for the Amsterdam Pipe Museum
3 September 2015
The publisher responsible for all the daily newspapers in the western part of the country printed a full-page article on the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. The exhibition on the pipes of Vincent van Gogh drew the attention, but there was enough space for an interview with Benedict Goes, a fine article on the museum collection and the archaeological research done by the curator. As always, the historic interiors of the canal house show very well in the photographs. We are curious to know if this publicity will attract more Dutch visitors the coming weeks.
PermalinkAmsterdam Pipe Museum presents unique exhibition
2 September 2015
Vincent’s passion for pipe smoking
One would think that all aspects of the work of the famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh have already been studied, but no one ever looked at the pipes he smoked. In the impressive collection of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum we discovered the pipes that match with seventeen of Vincent’s drawings and paintings. Among these there are six self portraits, in which we can see that Vincent, ardent smoker as he was, chooses other pipes in Holland than when living in France. A virtual exhibition on our website offers more background information, as well about his pipes as on his love for tobacco that he displays in his letters.
See: http://www.pipemuseum.nl/index.php… (only in Dutch)
Vincent's passion for pipe smoking
1 September 2015
With the exhibition Vincent's passion for pipe smoking, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum shows the pipes that Van Gogh so often paints in his portraits and still life’s. In his work at least six self-portraits with a pipe can be found, which shows how fond he was with his tobacco pipe.
The pipe in Vincent's time
The museum has tracked down sixteen portraits and still life’s by Vincent van Gogh. The rich collection of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum offers sufficient material to find matching pipes. Sometimes these are clay pipes, which were still in general use in the 1880s, later he uses the more modern cherry wood pipe, which was popular in France at the time. Vincent only smoked a briar pipe, the wooden pipe that is still common today, in his last years of life.
In the museum until you can see the real pipes of the paintings until 12 December 2015.
In addition there is an elaborate presentation on this subject on our website.
Private work by Pierre Müller
19 August 2015
Pierre Müller is a Swiss jeweler by profession and pipe smoker by passion. For decades he was board member of various pipe smokers associations, as the Pipe Club de Suisse, for which he organized so many meetings. But Müller did more than that. In his leisure time he designed tobacco pipes and during his long life he built up quite a collection self-made pipes. He was able to get hold of the finest briar blocks and designed his pipes according the wood and its grain. Every single pipe he made as a artwork by design and finish, mostly sanded and polished by hand. His unique collection is now published in a privately printed book as a tribute to the passion of a pipe smoker for his smoking instrument.
PermalinkPedigree research
18 July 2015
The research into the pedigree of the objects in our collection, started Summer 2014, comes to an end this month. One of the last steps was the determination of a more specific period that owners had an object in their possession, which we succeeded with the help of personal contacts and in some cases literature research. This form of pedigree research, so rarely done when it comes to artifacts, proves quite successful. In many cases we were able to trace back the complete whereabouts of an object even from the manufacturer to the moment it entered into the museum collection. This also shows the conditions needed for an object to survive. You can discover yourself the successive changes of ownership by checking out our website. Be aware that for reasons of privacy, the ownership of the last ten years is not yet displayed on the site.
PermalinkForty years public museum
18 June 2015
On 18 June 1975 the first permanent exhibition of our collection was opened on Frederiksplein in Amsterdam. This week we celebrate that our pipe collection is for forty years open as a public museum. Of course a lot has been changed in the mean time. From a small exhibition of a few hundreds of clay pipes the museum evolved into the current: a canal house with 2.000 representative objects, in clay, porcelain, meerschaum, briar and whatever more. Looking back we notice a continuation of the passion for collecting, as well as researching and publishing. Step by step our knowledge and understanding of historical smoking progressed.
PermalinkTobacco as a colonial commodity
4 June 2015
The Noord-Brabants Museum in 's-Hertogenbosch opens an exhibition dedicated to the well-known colonial products: coffee, tea, tobacco and spices. The Amsterdam Pipe Museum sends in a series of loans to give content to the subject of tobacco. No less than 80 of our items will be exhibited and partly illustrated in the full-color catalogue. Our loans vary from pre-Columbian pipes to silver tobacco jars. A special object form our reserves is an intricate case of a pipe representative, that holds seven layers of drawers with twelve briar pipes each. It is the first time this case will be shown to the public.
PermalinkPipe moulds
1 June 2015
Every spring our curator sets off for a two weeks journey, without leaving the premises. His goal: discovering moulds. This sounds odd, but it is his time dedicated to the unique collection of pipe moulds in the reserves of the museum. The majority was bought in the 1980’s from the bankrupt Goedewaagen pipe and ceramic factory. Immediately after being brought in, the collection of several thousands of tools have been studied, but not all of them were cleaned right away. This annual ritual enables us to discover more about the craft of pipe making, alongside with the photo sessions capturing all details. During the recent journey several unknown signatures were discovered, many mould are clean and presentable now. The results are shown on our website.
PermalinkFrom Newsletter to Facebook
25 May 2015
For many years the Amsterdam Pipe Museum, earlier known as Pijpenkabinet, produced an electronic Newsletter that was sent to all our relations. After issue number 20 of October 2013 we decided to discontinue these Newsletters. In the meantime, since January 2013, a Facebook account was created that holds news and other items regarding the museum, hopefully on a more regular basis. Please visit that page and like us. More important is that our homepage on www.pipemuseum.nl, offers since recently next to a box with news items also an archive with older news. That archive makes it possible to look back at our activities.
PermalinkProud to announce ....
23 May 2015
In the "Museums in Amsterdam" section, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum has reached 15th out of 65 museums.
For those who have not yet been, it is time for your visit to the Amsterdam Pipe Museum!
Death anniversary Edward Bird
20 May 2015
Today we commemorate the death anniversary of Edward Bird, a pipe maker of English origin who made Amsterdam well-known as a pipe making city. He managed a large workshop for clay pipes where he produced in huge quantities for export, especially to the New Netherlands. His pipes with EB heel mark are still being found worldwide. His elbow-shaped pipe was particularly popular among the native Americans. Bird died on 20 May 1665, today exactly 350 years ago. The inventory drawn on his death shows how vast his production was. In his storage house he had packed 400.000 pipes for export. His son Evert Bird was meant to continue the successful firm but he failed. Our curator Don Duco wrote an extensive article on the life and work of this important Amsterdam pipe maker, to be found on our old website www.pijpenkabinet.nl > § 19 complete list of publications (Amsterdam, 2002).
PermalinkOpium pipe in art centre
21 April 2015
The Amsterdam gallery Castrvm Peregrini features the exhibition "Exclude / Include, Alternate Histories". This artistic presentation includes the story of life of artist Sean Hannan. One of the exhibits is a splendid engraved bone opium pipe from our collection, that illustrates the personal story of the artist. Visiting this exhibition you will experience how a personal history can shift according to the viewpoint. The exhibition runs until 12 June.
PermalinkOur real gold
15 April 2015
The Dutch Museum Association is organizing the Museumweek. Formerly only a weekend, now a full week the museums are extra attractive with special exhibits and programs. With the common slogan "Our real gold" every participating museum can exhibit its own show piece. The Amsterdam Pipe Museum displays a pipe related to Emperor Napoleon. It is a valuable gift from the emperor to his general who conquered North-Italy, including Venice. The very luxurious meerschaum pipe is covered with a gilded silver helmet, with the four horses of the San Marco on top. In the museum the full story of this posh pipe will be told during the Museumweek.
PermalinkUnseen results
10 April 2015
A regular asked question is: what do you do during a normal working week? The answer is different every time. This month, for instance, a huge task was completed, but invisible for any visitor. All primary photographs of our database were checked on color tone and uniformity in cutting. Since we are working on the digitation for so many years, the format of photofinishing slightly and unnoticed changed. By scanning the complete set of photos, the most extreme deviations could be improved. The result might be the same for the web visitor, but improvements are being made.
PermalinkThe showroom of the Royal Goedewaagen
27 March 2015
Research and writing on special subjects of the pipe history still goes on. This month curator Don Duco finished an article on the showroom of the Royal Goedewaagen, the leading pipe factory in Gouda during the nineteenth century. The article describes the showroom of the factory over the time and what that meant for the sales of the business in general. Also attention is paid to what finally happened with this unique factory collection and what is preserved nowadays. As other articles they are published on our website. However, for our website www.pipemuseum.nl we do not yet have the possibilities to publish this topic now. A little patience is needed.
PermalinkPipes with a face
8 March 2015
This photo album assembles a series of twelve pipes acquired last year showing human portraits. These twelve portrait pipes are illustrative for the multitude of expressions in pipe design in the nineteenth century. They differ from general types of people such as the clay pipe of an American Indian and the man's head carved out of a tropical coquilla nut, pure fantasy. Although yet unidentified, the elegant woman carved in meerschaum must be made after a life model. Even more interesting are the recognizable persons, historic or contemporary. This year we were able to buy the Columbus pipe, so appropriate since he brought the first tobacco to Europe. The fine portrait of King William II of Orange was our Dutch king, while Prime-Minister Bismarck ruled Germany many years later. Cultural celebrities as Leonardo da Vinci, Goethe and the sculptor Thorvaldsen were painted in extremely fine miniatures on porcelain pipes. But even in non-European cultures the human face is used in pipe design. A fine example is the wooden portrait pipe of the Mangbetu in Congo, so strikingly imaging a contemporary person.
PermalinkPipe smoking in the national press
2 February 2015
This weekend the Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf published a large article on pipe smoking: a double spread indicated the ins and outs of the tobacco pipe. Pipe smoking, the reader learns, is instead of a troublesome addiction a pleasant way of life. Pipe smokers enjoy their chosen moment of tranquility and aromatic savour. Besides several illustrations from our vast collections, the article is dominated by a huge portrait of pipe smoking Benedict Goes. In short, a positive impulse for a historic and present-day ritual.
PermalinkSecond anniversary of the APM
1 February 2015
Second anniversary of the APM
Today it is exactly two years ago that we changed the mane of the Pijpenkabinet into Amsterdam Pipe Museum. We gained a lot of publicity and increased the number of visitors by the new name, but the Dutch audience is not yet fully accustomed to the change. This proves how well-known and wide-spread the brand name Pijpenkabinet was.
A loan to Antwerp
18 January 2015
Our extensive internet database makes our collection worldwide accessible. We do notice that in the daily stream of emails as a reaction on the database. Also museum colleagues check our website, as we experienced by a loan request form Antwerp. For the exhibition Holy Places, Holy Books the curator of the MAS found a tobacco box in our collection with a decoration of the sacrifice of Abraham. This beautiful carved box has been shown to thousands of visitors in Antwerp and returned home this week. We acquired this box for its artistic quality, for the known pedigree and even the known maker. All this didn’t count for this exhibition, it was shown just for the religious decoration.
PermalinkNews about our outpost
11 January 2015
The exhibition in the Open Air Museum Arnhem closes down today. In 2004 the Dutch Open Air Museum in Arnhem, the Netherlands created a wonderful smoking room exhibiting 200 special pipes from our collection. The setting was great with three comfortable Chesterfield sate, where you can watch a video of Don Duco passionately talking about the variety in smoking pipes. Ten thousands of visitors have seen this collector's cabinet in Arnhem in the past years. Despite the success the Open Air Museum decided to close down this pavilion on 11 January 2015, in order to create a new presentation - this time without pipes. Our pipes will return home to the museum in Amsterdam.
PermalinkA new result in digitation
8 January 2015
This month we have sent a press bulletin about a top achievement in our online database. Recently the 25.000th item was added on our web-database on www.pipemuseum.nl. This means that 80% of the collection is online and fully searchable. Certainly we will finish the last 20% in course of time, the last bit of a major project, being the archaeological collection. Finally, but not earlier than in two years, we will update the oldest photos giving these the standard gray background. Take a look at www.pipemuseum.nl.
PermalinkBest wishes for 2015
31 December 2014
Please receive herewith our best wishes for 2015 and hayy holyday season.
PermalinkOur ranking at Tripadvisor
20 December 2014
Earlier this year we started a page on Tripadvisor, the famous website for the travel community with millions of reviews. Among the must-sees in Amsterdam the Prinsengracht is already mentioned as nr. 4. Most remarkable is that the Amsterdam Pipe Museum has reached ranking nr. 17 within a year! The reviews of our visitors are so nice: surprising, fascinating, charming, hidden treasure... Read for yourself what other visitors experienced in our museum: http://www.tripadvisor.nl/Review-Amsterdam_Pipe_Museum-Amsterdam. Highly recommended!
PermalinkLink to IAmsterdam
6 December 2014
In the atmospheric ambiance of a historic Amsterdam canal house, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum shows an overview of fashion and design in smoking pipes. The exhibition spans 2500 years, with exciting objects from five continents. For more information, visit IAMSTERDAM.COM
PermalinkPipe smoking course
19 November 2014
With the bustle during the last MuseumN8, it was of course not possible to offer visitors - in addition to a look at the varied pipe collection - the experience of pipe smoking. That will change. Over the next two months, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum will organize the "pipe smoking course" several times. In one evening, some intricacies of pipe smoking are explained, which are immediately put into practice. Register at info@pipemuseum.nl for one of the following evenings: November 19, November 27, December 3, 2014. Costs € 25 (student card € 20) including tobacco and drinks.
PermalinkFifteen years back
13 November 2014
Only four years after our move from Leiden to Amsterdam, on 13 November 1999, our museum received the Artifex award. This annual award is given to a museum or other cultural institution that has special merits in cultural tourism. The Amsterdam Pijpenkabinet museum got this award for its initiative of making a private collection into a museum. In particular the personal tours were appreciated by the jury: each visitor gets a personalized tour through the 'house of the collector'. Exactly fifteen years after the award ceremony, the museum still functions in the same way, although the numbers of visitors have increased considerably. One factor for this success is the name change into the more international Amsterdam Pipe Museum.
PermalinkMuseum night a big success
6 November 2014
More than 500 people visited the Amsterdam Pipe Museum, a considerable number for one evening considering the limited space of the canal house. Of course, it was announced that fumed beer could be tasted, but there was also plenty of serious interest in the beautiful historic house and the special collection. Amsterdam Pipe Museum participated for the first time this year, but it certainly will not be the last. AT5-television made a nice report of no less than 18 minutes. Look at http://www.at5.nl/tv/at5-specials/aflever/16317 - at Amsterdam Pipe Museum.
PermalinkNext Saturday is Museum Night.
28 October 2014
During this Museum Night the Amsterdam Pipe Museum offers as a special program the Cuisine Tabac: drinks and food with tobacco taste. We start the evening with coffee and tobacco liquor cake. You can also pop in on Prinsengracht when we serve the authentic smoke beer.
PermalinkPublication on smoking
25 October 2014
Recently a new study on smoking was published, edited as a simple paperback. Author Friso Schotanus titled his work "The best cigarette for your health", with as subtitle "How Smoking conquered the world." In his discovery through the history Schotanus tells the story of the cigarette, doing this in a special way. As a modern journalist and experienced author, he manages to make a fluent discourse, almost unnoticed supported by its sources. By using appropriate quotes he presents the topic powerfully, at the same time easy to read due to his journalistic skills. A must for readers that like to combine the quiet satisfaction of the pipe with the hectic history of the addictive cigarette smoking. For more information about the content read the review.
PermalinkAntique tobacco wrappers
18 October 2014
A special field of collecting of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum is old tobacco wrappers. In this section we show some highlights of tobacco wrappers as were in use during the eighteenth and nineteenth century in the Low Countries. The earliest examples were simple illustrations, often related to the stone emblems in the gables of Dutch houses. They were printed by means of a simple woodcut. During the eighteenth century these wrappers became more detailed and were executed as engravings. More text was added to advertise the dealer. Of course, this all was meant as publicity for the merchant to hold the clientele.
Permalink45 years of pipe research
1 October 2014
Today it is exactly 45 years ago that along the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam a large cesspit was opened in which several thousands of clay tobacco pipes were found. The excavated pipes came from a tobacco inn dating between 1630 and 1640. The find was the start of the research on the Dutch clay tobacco pipe that finally resulted in what is now known as the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. A jubilee for the museum but also for Don Duco, the founder of the museum. His endeavor for 45 years made the Amsterdam Pipe Museum to what it is today. The social and historic significance of the tobacco pipe were the reason that the years passed by quickly, bringing a remarkable result in a vast series of publications and a fine museum collection.
PermalinkInvisible acquisition
30 September 2014
The Amsterdam Pipe Museum is permanently improving the quality of its collections. Some purchases are invisible for the visitors, because they are no enlargements of the collection but just an improvement of quality. This is the case with the impressive figural pipe bowl known as 'Le Grec', the Greek, with a mask at the bottom of the pipe bowl. For years we had this pipe in the collection, although with a chipped nose, which is not according to our quality standards. This week we acquired the same pipe in perfect condition from a Belgium collector. It is a nice example how quality in a collection can improve, a change only visible for the most critical visitor.
PermalinkPedigree research
20 September 2014
This Summer time intervals between appointments and visitors were used for a new research project on the original owners of our museum objects. For museums the so-called pedigree, the previous owner(s) of items, are considered more and more important. This information tells another history of the objects that can lead to a better determination and a sharper dating. In our registration, that started in 1969, the information on the owner before the person who brought the item in was already noted. Where possible we traced previous owners. This research brought up interesting new information, from some items in our collection we were even able to reconstruct the pedigree from the moment of creation, over several generations, up to the present. The final step is bringing this information on the internet. This adaptation will be ready by the end of the year. Result will be that the collection database will have grown with thousands of text lines illustrating the ownership over several generations.
PermalinkAmsterdam Pipe Museum on the radio
22 August 2014
Friday afternoon RTV-Noord-Holland, a provincial radio station, sent a reporter for an interview with the head tour guide Benedict Goes. People in the province got a short but fine impression how interesting a visit to this museum can be. In any case, the reporter was enthusiastic. We await the crowds coming in ...
PermalinkPipe Museum in local newspaper
19 August 2014
Het Parool, the local newspaper features a new item this summer with a series entitled "Tourist in your own city". The reporter visits a spot, concert or museum every day as a tourist. Today he reports on his visit to the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. One wonders which part of his visit he liked the most, since he was obviously impressed by the canal house as well as the collection. The personal tour was also a surprise to him. Hopefully this clipping will encourage more local Amsterdam people to visit our museum.
PermalinkAnother digitation result
24 July 2014
On-going work on the digitation of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum collection resulted this week in a new milestone. We reached the number of 115.000 unique photographs. Already at the beginning of the photo sessions, we concluded that one photo per object was enough to present the item, but was insufficient to inform users about the physical appearance of the item. So, next to both sides of the object, also details were photographed to be included in the database. In the meantime we have an average of four photo's per item on the website. It still is a miracle that the internet can provide all this information in a split second wherever in the world. With the number of over 115.000 photos the database of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum ranks among the major museums in the Netherlands.
PermalinkRussian ceramic
18 July 2014
Besides cultural tourists to the Amsterdam Pipe Museum, many visitors are persons with a specific interest or even passion. Today we had a visitor from Moscow who proved to be a ceramist. After his visit and a nice chat, he donated one of his pipes to the museum. Not an average tobacco pipe but an alternative ceramic pipe for smoking cannabis. This pipe is truly remarkable for its metallic shining glaze like copper and unique surface treatment imitating hammered metal. The simple design of the pipe is very useful: a hole at one end is a comfortable mouthpiece to place against your lips, a hole at the far end enables to regulate the air influx and the wide tube in between functions for good cooling. We are happy with this one-of-a-kind addition.
PermalinkPre-announcement participation Museum Night
16 June 2014
This year the Amsterdam Pipe Museum will participate in the Amsterdam Museum Night (N8). Our museum cannot be missed in this extremely popular event with an annual visitor’s number of over 30,000. So, the first of November we will be open from 7 PM to 2 AM at night. As chosen guest location we will get extra media coverage. The program for this night is not yet fixed and will be announced later. In the meantime: block the date 1 November 2014.
PermalinkCurators to visit Amsterdam Pipe Museum
3 June 2014
Today five curators of the Amsterdam Museum made a visit to our museum. During coffee we talked about our presentation and they were genuinely impressed by the richness of our collection and the elaborate documentation we keep on our objects. Of course we discussed the possibilities for co-operation in future, both in exhibitions and collection management. We keep you posted on future results.
PermalinkAcquisition in meerschaum
17 May 2014
The collections of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum are expanding step by step. This week an elderly couple donated the museum a splendid tobacco pipe that was in their family for two generations. This meerschaum pipe is finely carved with a human skull hold by a hand. The work is done by a skilled and artistic workman, showing the finest details, which makes the pipe worthy to our museum collection. We are very grateful to the donators for their contribution. Do you have a pipe yourself, as beautiful or not? Take in consideration to leave it to our museum to have it preserved for future generations.
PermalinkAntique shisha lounge
9 May 2014
The print collection of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum is rich in all sorts of smokers from foreign countries. In this album we selected smokers who enjoy a water pipe, hookah, shisha or what they wish to call it. The shisha is now very popular in Amsterdam as in many other west-European countries, but is in fact intended to smoke in warmer climates. Apart from Turkey, Egypt and the Middle-East the water pipe is also loved by smokers in various countries in Africa.
PermalinkOur outpost in Arnhem
5 May 2014
Ever since 2004 the Amsterdam Pipe Museum has a permanent exhibition in the Dutch Open Air Museum in Arnhem, we could even call it our annex or outpost. It is a special exhibit with its own atmosphere. It shows a worldwide overview of tobacco pipes in the unexpected ambiance of a post-modern gentlemen’s room. Visitors with some time can sit down in a comfortable Chesterfield sofa and watch a video on a 1950’s television set. Our curator tells why he has chosen these particular objects from the museum’s rich collection for this special exhibition. The presentation "Spaarstation Dingenliefde" (Tram station ‘Love for Objects’) will be on view in Arnhem for the coming years. If you have seen it, please let us know!
PermalinkNew book on tobacco boxes
25 April 2014
Recently a new book was published in a limited edition on Dutch tobacco boxes with biblical decorations. The author, Renger Knibbe, collected these kind of boxes for years and has analysed the engravings on these typical Dutch tobacco boxes. Doing so he produced a catalogue of his collection, organized along the order of the Bible text. In some cases he even found the prints that have been used as an example for the engraving on the box. The publication is written and produced with great care and accuracy, both in the colour pictures and the descriptions and background. The book is available in the Amsterdam Pipe Museum.
PermalinkExhibition dedicated to flowers on tobacco pipes
26 March 2014
The Amsterdam Pipe Museum organizes a small exhibition dedicated to flowers and bouquets on tobacco pipes, entitled "Painted Flowers". The porcelain pipe bowl or Stummel is meant for a painting and although you would not expect such a thing in a man's item like a pipe, the painting of flowers was apparently very popular in the 19th century. The German porcelain painters created real works of art on a small scale. The exhibition starts today and last until 31st May 2014.
PermalinkArticle about a special pipe brand
19 March 2014
An English journalist once wrote "Ropp is champion" when he described the successful French pipe factory called Ropp. Founded in Bussang in the French Vosges, this company developed from a local pipe workshop into a real factory for serial production. Initially, pipes were made in cherry wood (Weichsel), later also in briar. In his recently written article, Don Duco follows the history of this remarkable firm. How this company grew from simple fruit wood pipes to an immense tobacco pipe manufactory with a wider assortment. They quickly became a major competitor to brands in the pipe city of Saint-Claude. Eventually, under pressure of the general downturn in the pipe industry, the company moved to Saint-Claude where it was later incorporated into an existing pipe factory. The famous Ropp brand gradually died a silent death, although the fame of this factory still lives on.
PermalinkReview museum visit
8 March 2014
More and more visitors write a review on our Tripadvisor page to let others know how enthusiastic they are about our collection and the personal explanation by our guide. Some people make an extra effort, such as Mikael Brockman, a Swedish student in the Netherlands who makes his own blog. He wrote a special page on his visit to the Amsterdam Pipe Museum.
Have a look at: http://blog.goula.sh/post/77581339099/museum-2-amsterdam-pipe-museum
Continuing digitizing
27 February 2014
The winter period is a good time for digitizing. With fewer visitors we can work on the photography, digital photo correction, uploading and text review of the database. This month we worked on the English clay pipes, mostly the modern pipes made by Pollock & Co and the workshop of Eric Ayto. Although we bought these pipes 'brand-new' from the factory between 1950 and 1980, these are now already sort of antiquities, only to be found in a curiosity shop. With these acquisitions at the original source, the origin and dating is for 100% sure and registered. These pipes are never on view in the museum, but who knows what we'll do in 50 years. For the time being this is only study material, now available for everybody through our database.
The English pipe industry, once a major industry in the UK, died out in the twentieth century without a trace. Pollock from Manchester is the last industrial manufacturer, for the rest a few private workshops produced a marginal selection on a non-commercial base. Only from the workshop of Eric Ayto some documentation exists due to our own photo coverage.
Archaeological talks
17 February 2014
The Dutch Society for Amateur Archeologists (AWN) organized an annual study and exchange day in the archaeological repository of the city of Gorcum. The theme was ceramic, including clay pipes. Benedict Goes was invited as a speaker and explained the audience of some sixty people how a clay pipe was made. During the afternoon he gave a workshop in identifying pipe finds, by looking into the details of the finished product and by use of the current literature.
PermalinkGroup visit
14 February 2014
For groups the Amsterdam Pipe Museum serves a special welcome coffee. While seated comfortably in the middle of the exhibition, our guide gives an explanation on the smoking customs around the world, highlighting some of the items from our unique collection.
This week we had two very different groups: twelve house wives from Badhoevedorp, a village just outside Amsterdam, who showed a special interest in the luxury smoking implements of the nineteenth century pipe smoker. The second group was a mix of people from different countries seeking asylum in the Netherlands. Every one of them searched for the pipes from their own country such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Soudan, etc. For some of them this was the first encounter with the traditional smoking habits from their country.
Interested in having your own guided tour with a group? Contact the museum (Benedict Goes - 020-4211779).
Hooray, our first anniversary
1 February 2014
Today we celebrate the first anniversary of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum, that is to say, the renaming of the existing Pijpenkabinet into Amsterdam Pipe Museum. Although some people have to accustom, the new name is taken very positively, not only by the marketing experts, but especially by our main audience: the foreign cultural tourist.
PermalinkAcquisition ‘Uncle Paul’
27 January 2014
The so-called Uncle Paul pipe in a rustic finish is the first acquisition in 2014. It was a gift from an American ex-smoker who wanted to complement our collection. Uncle Paul is a specific shape with a wide cylindrical bowl connected to a strongly bent stem, practically going upright along the bowl and again a strong bent towards the mouthpiece. This shape was popular in the time around 1900, the name refers to Paul Krüger the president of South-Africa at that time.
This gift however is not a briar pipe as was to be expected, but a pipe in block meerschaum. In the late 1970's when this pipe was produced it was a highly fashionable pipe with its rustic, raw surface. The dark black coloring makes the pipe unrecognizable as a meerschaum pipe. Finally, the mother-of-pearl effect in the acrylic stem is a fashion of the time. With these specific features this pipe is a fine addition to the collection, registered under number APM 21.925.
Should you have some tobacco pipes, hidden in a cabinet or in the attic, even if they are not really old, bring them to our museum. It could very well be a welcome addition to our collection of the twentieth century smoking history.
A gift from a colleague
25 January 2014
The former director of Museum Flehite in the Dutch city of Amersfoort donated to the Amsterdam Pipe Museum a series of paper cigar bags which he got from his father. Special about all these paper bags is that they were all issued by the same cigar shop in The Hague in the 1910’s to 1930’s. The paper bags are printed with the name and address of the tobacconist shop on one side and with different images on the reverse, mostly a rebus.
Before World War II cigar smokers bought their cigars mostly in small numbers, just one to three at the time. The cigars were put into a simple paper bag for transport home. The printing of the bags was the advertisement for the shop. In order to prevent that the paper bag was thrown away straight away after use, the shop keepers sought for an additional print to make the bag more useful. This could be the time table of the local tram or bus, or even a rebus that kept the children busy for quite some time. In this way the name and address of the tobacconist stayed in the house for days. In this case the paper bags from The Hague survived even two generations! By searching the internet the colleague from Amersfoort found out that the Amsterdam Pipe Museum has a fine collection of these kind of paper cigar bags. This inspired him to make the donation. His well-preserved bags will stay in our collection for the next generations. Any one following his example?
The Changing of the Guard
18 January 2014
After a successful year Patricia Olsthoorn leaves us as a museum director. Her position in the Amsterdam Pipe Museum made her eligible for a new, and better paid job in the staff of the Amsterdam Riding School (Hollandsche Manege). Also in her new position she will be responsible for publicity and public relations. During the time with us she made the Amsterdam Pipe Museum better known and enhanced the visitors numbers considerably. Her tasks as director will be taken over by Benedict Goes, who seized his career in monument conservation allowing him more time for the Amsterdam Pipe Museum.
PermalinkSeason’s greetings
28 December 2013
The Amsterdam Pipe Museum wishes all her relations a blessed 2014!
Patricia Olsthoorn, Benedict Goes & Don Duco
Tabacology, a newly attributed section within the collection
11 December 2013
The online database of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum is still in development. Last week we set apart a new sub-collection of accessories for the pipe smoker, entitled ‘tabacology’. This group consist of 650 tobacco related objects or in other words tobacco paraphernalia. These are the accessories a pipe smoker uses during the act of smoking, apart from his pipe, such as tobacco boxes, pipe tools, pipe cases, stands, braziers and more.
Up to recently these objects were labelled as varia objects, which made that they got more or less lost in the larger group of curiosity such as pipe clay figurines and other off products of the pipe industry and memorabilia. With the new selection of tabacology you can easily admire the beauty of the objects surrounding the smoker. This link gives you direct access.
Back in time
28 November 2013
Today we got the impression of being in a time machine, receiving a group of Russian Cossacks. As part of the commemoration of 200 years of the Kingdom of the Netherlands these Russian men and women took part in the re-enactment of the historic field battle of 1814 that chased off the French army of Napoleon. The Cossacks played an important role at that time, eventually not ending up in our history books. The Russian Cossacks escorted King William I in 1815 at his entry in Amsterdam, a city not at all as royalist as The Hague. A group of Cossacks in their early nineteenth century uniforms made a visit to the Amsterdam Pipe Museum, where we could inform them on the smoking habits and specific pipes popular at the time. With a pipe we selected for each of them, fitting to their rank and position, they posed for the photo. And finally it was time for a little smoke.
PermalinkAddition to the collection pipe reamers
30 October 2013
Mr. W.F. den Herder was a well-known collector of antiques in the city of Goes in the south-western corner of the Netherlands (Zeeland). After he died his collections were sold in auction where we could acquire no less than thirty silver pipe cleaners. The collector from Zeeland was a pharmacist in Goes with a special interest in tobacco, a stimulant that was sold centuries ago as a medicine. In total he had some fifty silver pipe reamers, which used to be a typical Dutch accessories for pipe smokers. With this acquisition the collection of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum was put onto a high level as towards silver pipe tools. One of the more special ones acquired is the dog in his doghouse, a late eighteenth century political symbol.
PermalinkNewsletter
20 October 2013
The Amsterdam Pipe Museum issued number 20 of our Newsletter, the newest in a long row half yearly news from the museum. This issue is dedicated to the modern tobacco pipe and to pipe smoking. We choose this theme because of the change of name of our shop, from Smokiana Pipeshop to Amsterdam Pipe Shop. This new name is more to the point and indicates clearly the relation between museum and shop.
Apart from the name, the assortment also changed a bit. We already had a wide choice of pipes, which we extended with modern briars from France, England, Ireland, Germany and Italy. The total number of pipes in our assortment has now grown to 2,500, a unique assortment in the Benelux and probably beyond. For the regular smoker we added various classic pipes, but also more luxurious, handmade pipes of Italian design for the more discerning smoker who can value a fine grain, an exclusive design and the ultimate finish. Hopefully the extension of our assortment will be a good reason for the pipe smoker to visit Amsterdam Pipe Shop again.
Read our Newsletter on: http://www.pijpenkabinet.eng/ and click Newsletter 20 in the upper left corner.
A bizarre Blackmoor
15 October 2013
The illustrated pipe has been added to the collection of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum earlier this month. It is a large advertising pipe or ‘pipe d’étalage’ with a height of over 20 centimeter made by Félix Wingender pipe works in Chokier near Liège. Next to the extreme size it is a rarity because this piece is the one and only example known, both in collections and in literature. The curator knew this pipe for over thirty years in a private collection, and finally we were able to acquire this rare object.
Despite its rarity this advertising pipe is not the most beautiful one and certainly not the most artistic. Both the modeling and painting are quite course in to bright colors. We found out that the shaping of this pipe is different from what was initially intended. For several years our museum documentation has already hold the original designs for this particular pipe. The designs, both full face and silhouette, show that the pipe was meant to be more refined. It is quite a chance that the drawings and the actual pipe did come together after so many years.
Porcelain pipe bowls
12 October 2013
The oval porcelain pipe bowl or Stummel as it is called in Germany has been produced throughout the nineteenth century by almost every porcelain factory in Germany. Smokers admired these pipes because of their attractive painting. The quality of the paint work, displaying all sorts of subjects, runs from crude and simple mass produced flowers to the most delicate miniature painting finished with a one hair paint brush.
PermalinkMerits from Saint-Claude
10 October 2013
In the showcase behind the shop we made a small exhibition of modern tobacco pipes, entitled “Merits from Saint-Claude”. The selected pipes are fine examples of design in briar pipes, made in the capital of Briars: Saint-Claude in the French Jura. We acquired all pipes recently on the spot to complement the museum collection. In this way we keep our collections up-to-date.
Sebastien Beaud is a pipe maker who owns a small workshops and is represented with a pipe with facet-bowl inspired by cubism. The Butz-Chouin factory made an original pipe, related to the artist René Magritte. The pipe is sold as three separate parts in a tin with a printed label stating "Ceci est une pipe". The pipe bowl is shaped like the famous bowler hat of the Belgian artist, especially when closed off with a lid that forms the rim of the hat.
The Chacom firm is currently the leading pipe producer in Saint-Claude. The young director, Antoine Grenard, is trained as a designer and has daring ideas. One of the follies he made is a so-called ‘grolle’, a pipe with four stems, referring to the liquor glass with four sprouts that is popular during the annual market to taste the new eau-de vie. Other pipes from his firm are more serious pipes, with new shapes and a new finishing, such as the pipe covered in fine Thai wickerwork. This changes the appearance of the pipe completely, covering up the wooden structure.
The mini-expo is open to the public on all opening hours: Wednesday through Saturday noon to 6 PM.
Finally the street pavement is renewed
29 September 2013
After eighteen months of building nuisance, partly blocked from the world by high fences, on the 27th of September the Prinsengracht is finally accessible again. The work executed was a major operation: the quay walls of the 17th century canal had to be renewed, including the foundations on 18 meter long concrete poles. In the meantime the water sewage, the gas and electricity network, it was all renewed. No wonder that we were stuck behind the building fences, inaccessible for motorized traffic, but also for bicycles and sometimes even for pedestrians. For weeks we could reach the museum only on a small temporary path made in the sand bank. Happily, on 27 September the fences were taken down and the new brick pavement of the street and sidewalks are open for all traffic. We are accessible again for our visitors and customers.
PermalinkSnuff rasps in wood and ivory
7 September 2013
The snuff rasp was used to pulverize a tobacco carrot into freshly grained snuff tobacco. These objects are often finely carved and decorated in order to impress relatives and friends who were offered a fresh snuff. Wooden and ivory rasps are the most common, although still a rare item nowadays.
PermalinkUnique article on Napoleon tobacco pipes
28 August 2013
Curator Don Duco recently finished an article with the title: Napoleon tobacco pipes: political statement or fashion item? It is an homage to the French collector Daniel Mazaleyrat. Acquisitions from his famous collection of figural clay tobacco pipes made it possible to present a fresh view on the French politically engaged tobacco pipes. All portrait pipes of Emperor Napoleon I and his grandson Napoleon III appear in chronological order. Duco researches why these pipes were produced and for which target group. In doing so the article connects the production and consumption side of this typical nineteenth century utensil.
PermalinkCigar bags on our website
25 July 2013
A paper cigar bag might seem a trivial object, and indeed most of them are disposed regardless after bringing home one or a few cigars from the local shop. Nevertheless, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum has several hundreds of these nineteenth century paper wrappers in the collections. They are now included in the online database. Visitors with a topographical interest, genealogists and regional historians can retrieve them online by searching www.pipemuseum.nl.
PermalinkAdditions to the study collection
15 July 2013
The Amsterdam Pipe Museum was able to add a few new items to the extensive reference collection. We bought ten clay pipes made by the firm P. Goedewaagen & Sons in Gouda that were still missing in our collection. They represent the most luxurious finish at the time (1930’s) that was too expensive for most smokers: a white glaze all around the pipe bowl.
PermalinkExquisite wind caps on the pipe bowl
24 June 2013
This album shows a selection of silver and silver gilded pipe covers that display how much the pipe smoker cares for his favorite pipe. The silver was casted, sawn, chiseled and sometimes gilded to get the ultimate result. In one of the examples even an antique cameo is inserted, surrounded by diamonds for the impressive effect.
PermalinkPortrait pipes by French pipe makers
21 June 2013
The French figural pipe is a phenomenon in sculpture. During the nineteenth century a number of large pipe manufacturers produced the most amazing portrait pipes of contemporary persons, general characters and fantasy busts. The Amsterdam Pipe Museum possesses an impressive collection of these pipes of which a selection in this album on the facebook page of our museum on 21 June 2013..
PermalinkExhibition 'Long Live the King' extended
13 June 2013
The exhibition 'Long Live the King' (Lang Leve Oranje! in Dutch) that runs until 15 June has been extended up to 15 August 2013. Guided tours are still being offered for free. For possibilities to combine a tour with a high tea or group visits, please contact the museum (Benedict Goes 020-4211 779).
PermalinkNew press moulds on the web
17 May 2013
Last two weeks we cleaned sixty brass pipe mould from the former Royal Goedewaagen Pipe Works. Oxidation, particularly on the iron closing pins and some brass oxide on the remains of pipe clay was removed. Now the moulds have their original shiny appearance, they moved to the photo studio for being recorded extensively. Want to see them? The pipe moulds are now included in the online database at www.pipemuseum.nl, together with the other hundred that were already online.
PermalinkTwenty thousand objects online
14 May 2013
Earlier this month we informed the press that our online database has reached a new summit. Our 20.000th object has been included in the database. This means that we have realized 2/3 of our gigantic digitizing project. We look forward to the next part. Have a look for yourself at www.pipemuseum.nl for the complete virtual collection.
PermalinkChinese pipe bowls for the opium pipe
24 April 2013
The opium damper is the name for the hollow bowl on top of an opium pipe, normally made out of Chinese ceramic. Most often two colours of stoneware clay are being used: the bowl in one colour, in which a decoration is engraved, filled in with contrasting clay colour. More rare are the glazed porcelain bowls of which our museum has some fine examples. See in this album how attractive the different shades of glaze colours can be.
PermalinkCurator on LinkedIn
19 April 2013
Following the board members and staff of the museum, finally our curator Don Duco has his LinkedIn account. His name is well known and should be retrievable. Hopefully this account will produce extra publicity for the museum or at least for the research in pipe history in which field our curator has done so much work for so many years.
PermalinkJapanese smoking cabinet
15 April 2013
The ethnographic collection of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum has been enriched this week by a fine wooden cabinet that has been used in Japan while smoking a kiseru. The square box contains a metal brazier and ash tray on the top. Smokers, both the owner and his guests, could light their small pipes with the coals from the brazier and after one or two puffs empty the pipe by hitting the ash tray. In the front there are three small drawers for tobacco and other implements. In the front edge a dedicated inclination is made in order to hold the pipe of the owner.
Special about this small cabinet is the exclusive marquetry with various kinds of exquisite woods, sawn in an intricate pattern in a way only the Japanese can invent. The smooth polish, combined with the delicate bronze is fit for a welcoming Japanese smoker who likes to impress his guests. Hidden in the design, is a bronze handle at the top that enables the user to bring in the cabinet in an elegant way.
Congratulations Rijksmuseum
9 April 2013
The Amsterdam Pipe Museum congratulates the Rijksmuseum with the grand opening after the long renovation. The Rijksmuseum is just on walking distance and in fact less than 500 meters away, so the nearest museum to ours. Our director has congratulated the general director of the Rijksmuseum, Wim Pijbes, in a personal letter.
PermalinkExhibition Orange Pipes
3 April 2013
Following the festivities of the inauguration of Prince Willem Alexander as King of the Netherlands, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum organizes an exhibition on two centuries of the family of Orange in pipes entitled 'Long live the King, 200 years Kingdom, Orange and pipes'. We show commemorative pipes related to marriage, birth and coronation in the Royal Family. These pipes show both the development of pipe design and the public support for our royals.
Some special items are safeguarded by the museum, such as a letter from 1826 by a proud Gouda pipe maker, who offered King Willem I a box of special designed clay pipes. Queen Wilhelmina signed a silk bound guestbook when she visited the Goedewaagen Pipe Works in 1897, which is on view. A moving object is a briar pipe, carved by a member of the Dutch resistance with the portrait of Queen Wilhelmina. More recent is the favorite pipe of Prince Bernhard that he offered to the pipe museum. His family crest of Lippe-Bisterfeld is engraved on the silver ring around the pipe stem. Most precious object from the exhibition is the silver cigarette case that the Prince was once offered by the Sultan of Lankat on Sumatra. In very fine enamel a portrait of the Indonesian sultan decorates the cover of this fine case.
The exhibition 'Long Live the King' can be seen from 3 April to 15 June 2013. Free guided tours.
Wonderful pipes from Africa
29 March 2013
Some fine and unexpected tobacco pipes from Congo and other countries, made out of wood, stone or bronze. Every tribe displays its own design. Notice the contrast between the square shape of a wooden pipe and the original tusk pipe or rhinoceros pipe from the Bokote. The stone pipe of the Mayombe is again completely different from the carved portrait pipe from the Luba. In South-Africa wood is preferred, sometimes in unusual designs. For the full photo album about these tobacco pipes, see the facebook page of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum of 29 March 2013.
PermalinkPipe auction at Drouot
23 March 2013
Wednesday 20 March 2013 the public sale of the Mazaleyrat collection took place at Drouot auction house in Paris. Daniel Mazaleyrat was a French collector for over 40 years, focusing on figural pipes, both in clay and porcelain. The Amsterdam Pipe Museum was present and was able to acquire a fine selection. Among them the famous factories Gambier, Fiolet and Duméril, but also several unknown makers, such as the illustrated judge. In due time all acquisitions will be presented on our website www.pipemuseum.nl.
PermalinkAfrican ceramic pipes
7 March 2013
Ceramic is the ideal material for making a smoking pipe. Easy to shape and inflammable. As in Europe, the African tribes are aware of the quality of a ceramic pipe. This selection shows some examples out of red baking clay, sometimes decorated with a contrasting slib, others being black backed. Every tribe has its own symbols and designs. Enjoy some of the representative examples from the collection of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. For the full photo album, see the facebook page of APM of 7 March 2013.
PermalinkMeerschaum pipes
28 February 2013
Today a selection from our carved meerschaum pipes. The earlier examples have the characteristic high Hungarian bowl with carved decoration. The design gets more imaginative after 1850 with a number of portrait pipes. Many of these are meant for smoking cheroots, small cigars. The absorbing quality of the meerschaum makes that even the end of a cigar still tastes well, since all nicotine and tar is taken by the material.
PermalinkRegistered museum
26 February 2013
The Amsterdam Pipe Museum formerly Pijpenkabinet has met the standards of the international ICOM-definition for over 30 years. In February 2013 the museum was assessed by the Dutch Museum Register. The status of Registered Museum introduced in 2006 was reassigned.
PermalinkPorcelain pipes with figural decorations
22 February 2013
Porcelain is an alternative material for tobacco pipes since the early 18th century. At first these figural pipe bowls were made in small numbers as exclusive objects. From 1800 onward the oval bowl, called "Stummel" or Dutch shape, comes into fashion, the decoration focusing on the painting. From then on the figural pipe is only produced as curiosity. After 1860 the porcelain pipes becomes a mass produced item, lacking any quality. It is the time for Kitsch in figural bowls as well as Stummels. For the full photo album about figural porcelain tobacco pipes, see the facebook page of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum of 22 February 2013.
PermalinkThe clay pipe as archaeological find
9 February 2013
A small selection of clay pipes comes from archaeological digs. While most of the Gouda clay pipes were plain and undecorated, some of them have a detailed embossed decoration resulting from the engraving of the brass pipe mould. The eighteenth century also brings the first figural pipe bowls. It will however last till the nineteenth century before the figural pipe bowls become popular and the embossed decorations disappear.
PermalinkColleague visits us
8 February 2013
On 8 February 2013 the director and staff received Sigrid Ivo, director of the Museum of Bags and Purses in Amsterdam. This proved to be an inspiring visit since both museums share the same experience, both in the collector circles as in the museum world.
PermalinkPre-Columbian smoking pipes
5 February 2013
A selection of the rich collection of tobacco pipes from pre-Columbian cultures. In Meso-America most pipes were made in ceramic. Clay is easy to form, the baking techniques were well-developed and the result is fire resisting. The use of slip resulted in a contrasting color. Rare pieces however are carved out of stone, such as the unique penis pipe from the Jalisco culture. For the full photo album see the facebook page of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum of 5 February 2013.
PermalinkFrom Pijpenkabinet to Amsterdam Pipe Museum
1 February 2013
Museum Pijpenkabinet has changed its name. The future name will be in English and more international: Amsterdam Pipe Museum. The additional pay-off says: the worldwide culture of smoking.
PermalinkFirst acquisition in 2013
31 January 2013
The defeat of Napoleon and the dramatic retreat of his troops from Russia inspired many artists. Even for pipe designs the topic Napoleon was inspirational for many decades. This acquisition, bought in an antique shop in Prague, is a fine example of Napoleana. This first acquisition of the year 2013 was inscribed as collection number APM. 21.400.
PermalinkPlaster designs of the Royal Goedewaagen
18 January 2013
The Pijpenkabinet pays much attention to digitizing the collection. This week a new group was published on-line, a part of the collection that draws little public attention: plaster designs for pipes made in the 20th century. These proof copies of pipe bowls are made out of plaster of Paris and were used in the pipe industry to cast the plaster pipe moulds. In fact they are the original design for that particular pipe shape.
The Pijpenkabinet has taken over many of these pipe designs when the historical material from the Royal Goedewaagen Pipe Works was transferred to our museum. They have historical importance, since these life-size designs bear the original mould numbers. Besides it is possible to date the design by its original cast. The complete collection of plaster pipe designs can be seen on www.pipemuseum.nl.
New director
4 January 2013
On January 1st 2013 Patricia Olsthoorn will be appointed director of the Pijpenkabinet. She started already in the Fall of 2012 as a volunteer in preparing her job with a marketing survey for the museum. She will work on the museum's external presentation. Patricia has a long standing experience in the museum profession. She has worked at the Hague Historical Museum and Gouda Museum as curator of the collections and on special projects. Over the last years she followed a study in cultural entrepreneurship at Erasmus University Rotterdam. With her wide experience and marketing focus she will give our specialized museum a public friendly image.
PermalinkNew Director Pijpenkabinet
27 December 2012
Patricia Olsthoorn (1975) is the new director of the Pijpenkabinet museum. She has been recruited to give a boost to the professionalization of the Amsterdam museum and to increase the its visibility . Olsthoorn about her appointment: "I think it is a challenge to bring this specialist and worldwide collection back to the public's attention. The museum wants to improve its national and international profile. I will tackle the changes that accompany a professionalization process like this with passion and confidence." Patricia Olsthoorn was for years staff member at Museum Gouda. After a renewed study, specializing in cultural entrepreneurship and CRM at Erasmus University, she has advised companies in embracing these aspects. Olsthoorn combines her position at the Pijpenkabinet with her tasks as advisor cultural entrepreneurship within the cultural sector.
PermalinkLight your pipe
19 December 2012
Under this name the Pijpenkabinet joins the Amsterdam Light Festival that lightens up our city this winter. Our museum has its own interpretation of the word light by using it in the sense of lighting a pipe. The museum shows the antique instruments that are at the base of light and fire. In two show- windows you can see fire-pans, braziers, tongues and tinder pistols, tinder boxes, but also pyrogenic instruments. Of course we also show the modern lighter. From December 19, 2013 until February14 2013 the exhibition Light your pipe can be seen.
PermalinkArticle on the Dutch brass tobacco box
21 October 2012
The brass tobacco box is a typical Dutch product with a long popularity. In an extensive article curator Don Duco presents these boxes from 1620 when they emerge to the time they get out of use. This appears to be the first overview that gives the full history of the tobacco box in all its aspects. Especially enlightening is the chronological and typological classification of shapes. He describes the ways of production, possibilities to decorate and the decorative themes. Finally the article treats the tobacco boxes in other materials. All together a clear and important survey.
PermalinkJacob number hundred!
25 September 2012
The most produced figural pipe is dedicated to the Biblical character of Jacob. Designed around 1855, this pipe remained in demand well into the twentieth century. It became the popular tobacco pipe for the rustic who appreciated the familiar face in its sturdy design. With its embroidered turban and long beard, the pipe appealed to many smokers' imaginations and became all the rage. Every self-respecting pipe maker between 1860 and 1940 produced such a pipe, sometimes even in multiple sizes. It is not surprising that our museum has quite a series of them. The depicted Jacob pipe was recently added to the collection of the Pijpenkabinet and that was gratifying. It is one of the very few designs that was still missing. Made by Joseph Heurter in Andenne, Belgium, this is a rare edition. In addition, it is the hundredth specimen of this popular design!
PermalinkPipe stopper signet ring
23 July 2012
This signet ring is absolutely a rare object. Not only does it have a personal sign but on the backside a pipe stopper is placed. So this archaeological find from the old centre of Amsterdam combines a signet ring and a handy pipe stopper in one object that enables the smoker to enjoy his pipe. This shows the importance of pipe smoking in those days. A rare object that dates to about 1650.
PermalinkUnique printing blocks
25 June 2012
Glerum Auctioneers in Amsterdam auctioned a number of rare printing blocks last week. It concerns 23 blocks of wood used by the Thorbecke Brothers from Zwolle. This series is so unique because it shows the marks that were used by this important trading company at the end of the eighteenth century. Apart from the blocks itself, cast in lead, there were also some moulds carved of wood that were used as matrix for the lead printing blocks. All in all a very informative set of objects that we were able to buy despite the high price. There was a lot of interest in these objects probably because the son of the last owner of the company was the well-known Dutch politician Johan Thorbecke.
PermalinkLibrary inventory
12 March 2012
A somewhat under exposed result of our new website is the library catalogue on internet. This inventory was made available on the internet last year. Since then the 9.600 titles in our library can be consulted. Those who want to know more about books or magazine articles can find the information there. A picture of the covers makes the titles even more vivid. Go to our website www.pipemuseum.nl and look for catalogue under the section search. A future project is the availability to search through the contents of a lot of publications on our web. It is all a question of time.
PermalinkTobacco wrappings
19 February 2012
This month the Pijpenkabinet received an extraordinary gift. It is the collection of Ab Venemans of Amsterdam. Venemans was and still is a motivated smoker who for the past thirty years smoked hundreds of different tobaccos. He always kept the wrappers and stored them methodically and so he finally became the owner of an almost complete series of tobacco pouches. Rev. Venemans did not only keep the pouches in mint condition but also fully documented. Especially for the future this acquisition is of great archive value.
PermalinkPrinsengracht closed for traffic
12 February 2012
This month part of Prinsengracht where our museum is will be closed for all traffic over a long period. The embankment needs to be repaired urgently and therefore will be taken down completely in order to lay a new concrete foundation. The council expects it will need approximately nine months to get the work done before a new pavement can be laid. In the meantime our shop and Museum will remain open as usual, but visitors have to walk over a boarded pathway coming either from Leidsestraat or Spiegelgracht. Unfortunately there will hardly be any passers-by during that period.
PermalinkFirst acquisition 2012
8 January 2012
Just after the first week a rare meerschaum pipe could be booked. Originating from the inheritance of the Amsterdam couple Phine and Frits Verhaaff we received a couple of pipes of which the one shown here is the most beautiful. It concerns a large sized meerschaum pipe of classic model. As a particular detail between bowl and stem an elegant decoration of a woman standing near a well can be seen. We need to do some research to find the maker of this pipe. Viennese carvings is a classic remark, but pipes like these were especially popular in the United States and quite a number of them were made over there. Therefore a good start for the collection of the Pijpenkabinet.
PermalinkAbd-El-Kader, an extremely popular pipe design
23 October 2011
The portrait of the Algerian freedom fighter Abd-El-Kader, often in combination with a lion’s head and skin, is the most frequent depiction in figural pipe design between 1830 and 1860. Curator Don Duco has recently written an extensive article on these pipes. He explains the history of this theme and comments on the social and economic backgrounds of these pipes, that are not only produced in France but also in Belgium and Germany. Illustrated with 24 different pipes, the article fully treats the fashion of this historic personality. It also deals with some look-alikes.
PermalinkAt last, the Christ figure-head!
10 October 2011
After years finally part of the collection of the Pijpenkabinet: the most wanted Christ figure-head, model number 800 of Gambier. The say that this pipe is the rarest of all French figural pipes. That is of course not true, but surely difficult to find. See at APM 20.957.
PermalinkExhibition of exceptional tobacco-boxes
15 September 2011
From 15 September to 31 October the Pijpenkabinet shows a series of exceptional tobacco-boxes that were acquired this spring from the Niemeyer collection. After curator Brongers laid the foundation for this collection, his successor, Tiemen Helperi Kimm, added some unique early pieces. With these the former Groningen museum was able to show the development of tobacco-boxes step by step. Especially these early examples were chosen by the Pijpenkabinet and will now be on show in Amsterdam. The photo shows the earliest tobacco-box from the Niemeyer collection, decorated in colorful enamel.
PermalinkDifferent collections
28 July 2011
Curator Duco recently wrote an article for the new website of the Pijpenkabinet. It is called Deelcollecties van het Pijpenkabinet (collections of the Pijpenkabinet) and it gives an overview of the seventeen areas of collection of the museum in Amsterdam. Our new website www.pipemuseum.nl gives the possibility to choose a selection from the collection-database. This article supports this facility together with articles on the history of the museum, the highlights of our collection and more about the collectors who made our museum. The picture shows a smoker from the collection of paintings and prints.
PermalinkAcquisition Niemeyer
17 March 2011
The closing of the Niemeyer Tabacco Museum at Groningen at the beginning of this year resulted in a remarkable acquisition this month for the Pijpenkabinet. Before the auction houses in Amsterdam and Hilversum were putting the collection on sale the Dutch museums were offered to obtain objects from this remarkable collection. For our museum this resulted in the acquisition of a good four hundred objects of high quality. We especially chose pieces from the heart of the collection that had a link to the objects in our museum. In our next Newsletter that will appear in May we will discuss a series of objects from this collection, We will give you a taste beforehand: the picture of a particular Indian pipe with lizard of the Iroquois, one of the favorites of former curator Georg Brongers.
PermalinkDutch acquisition
26 January 2011
This is an odd acquisition, a tobacco pipe shaped as a Dutch clog. With a design this bizarre the object finds itself in between smoke utensil and souvenir. The fact that apart from the shape it is decorated as Delft ware makes it even more Dutch. Maker is Ivora, known by pipe lovers as P. van der Want Gzn. from Gouda, at the beginning of last century the oldest Gouda pipe making factory. Though the design is very original it did not become successful. Especially the stopping of such an asymmetric pipe-bowl is not very practical. The pipe is not mentioned in the catalogue of the factory and it was probably only manufactured for a couple of years. This makes the acquisition even more interesting.
PermalinkForty years ago
1 October 2009
The 1st of October 1969 the former cesspit of a tobacco inn on Keizersgracht in the centre of Amsterdam was discovered. Archaeologist Don Duco found several thousands of 17th century clay pipes. This was the actual starting point of the collection that today forms the Amsterdam Pipe Museum.
Permalink