The 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.

Portraits 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.