Earthenware pipe bowl

November 2024

Besides all those fancy pipes made to impress, there are many more simple pipe bowls that are not so special, but have been extremely popular. This applies to pipes from our modern world, but also to ethnographic pieces. This bowl of a simple utility pipe is a representative of this kind. It comes from Ghana and has been used by the Lobi tribe. Shaped in red-baking clay, a simple, functional pipe has been realized that has enjoyed great popularity for generations. With its constricted bowl and flat bottom, it is a practical object. Such pipes are smoked on a strong stem of half a meter or even longer. While smoking, the rather heavy pipe rests on the floor and the smoker pulls it towards him when he wants to stir the bowl or relight the contents. Because the bottom of the pipe slides over the hut floor, the pipe bowl gradually wears off. That also happened here. Finally, a salient detail about the design of the cuff, the stem end of the pipe bowl. With its flattened shape and the cut-away triangle in the corner of the stem, it symbolizes a phallus that is regarded as a fertility symbol. A motif that has been part of such pipe bowls for generations, perhaps so long that both makers and users had forgotten the original meaning.

Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 24.774

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