Farmers hanging pipe

December 2014

The peasantry uses a more luxurious pipe for the Sunday than during the week. From 1850 onwards, pipes with a porcelain pipe bowl were often put in a moist trap and attached to a long ascending stem. However, those of lower status or with less time to relax when smoking could purchase a hanging pipe as an alternative. In that case the bowl is standing as well, but with a short stem part that is more perpendicular and is mounted on a short mouthpiece of buffalo horn, sometimes even provided with a flexible piece, the so-called slap. To prevent burning holes in the clothing, these pipes were covered with a braided iron wire pipe cap or spark catcher, secured with a ring around the stem. Such a farmer's pipe is depicted here, finished in a solid dark brown glaze, not quite typical for porcelain. These pipes were used by thousands in the Dutch countryside, but the majority got broken one day so that relatively few of these are preserved. They represent a fine example of semi-luxury smoking utensils used in a specific environment that was almost never preserved because it was too common to bother.

Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 21.960

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