Happy New Year
30 December 2024
From the Amsterdam Pipe Museum we wish you all a healthy and prosperous 2025 !
Benedict Goes & Don Duco
PermalinkHuqqua bases
17 December 2024
This exotic designation defines a special smoking object. The words stand for the water bottle of the hookah, widespread in the Near East and far beyond. The two examples depicted were recently added to our collection. They show the famous famille rose palette known from Chinese porcelain. This decor is usually intended for European trade, but in this case it was made for the Persian market. We can see that from the shade of the paintwork and especially the turquoise, that's what makes it so special. Whether this pair will be the last acquisitions of this year, we can't say yet.
PermalinkAdvent calendar
15 December 2024
This year, the advent calendar seems to have been rediscovered as a medium for commerce. The Amsterdam City Calendar was created, more focused on the promotion of local enterprises. Our museum is listed on it under day 12, today. Most users will not know the Amsterdam Pipe Museum and are now invited to take a look in an accessible way. As a souvenir, they will receive a present. We are curious to see what this action will yield.
PermalinkArt or kitsch
9 December 2024
This unexpected table pipe is the most bizarre pipe on offer this year. The pipe bowl is hidden in a Roman soldier representing the Rape of a Sabine Virgin. The helmed soldier is seated on a triumphal chariot drawn by two lions, led by a putto. The style of work and the presentation of the subject point to German manufacture, probably not long after the year 1800. The whole is cut from a large block of meerschaum. Striking and flashy, but not artistic or refined and especially not very user-friendly. The question immediately arises: should such a kitschy object be represented in our collection? Or should our focus remain on the utilitarian item?
PermalinkNiemeyer museum on the Amstel
2 December 2024
In the autumn of 1964, now sixty years ago, the tobacco museum of the Niemeyer company opened on the Amstel near the famous white drawbridge. It presented a nice overview of tobacco use in the Netherlands in the beautifully restored basement. That was sixty years ago. We now know that the museum moved to Groningen ten years after opening and was even closed for good in 2010. Most of the collection was soon sold off. Fortunately, our museum acquired an important part, so that lot returned to Amsterdam.
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