Thirty 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.
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