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.

Group 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.