Chinese 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.