Briar with Gouda shape

April 2002

The Gouda pipe with its oval bowl, cylindrical heel and straight stem has gained a worldwide fame and reknown. The popularity of this product continues to resonate in other production centres and even in other materials. This tobacco pipe carved in briar wood makes a good example. In terms of shape, the pipe is completely Gouda-like, however, its material and decoration is related to other regions. For example, the swinging grapevine with its characteristic leaves cut around the surface is definitely not Dutch. Vines have long been popular as a decorative element, often interspersed with bunches of grapes. The latter motif is used here in the heel. To make a gradual ending of the decoration on the pipe stem, a knotty branch is depicted in the middle part of the stem, very appropriately a naturalistic representation of the vine. The mouthpiece is added in amber to give the smoker the required comfort. The maker is probably the company Aschenbrenner & Cie. from Saint-Claude in France. They supplied a series of such pipes, the most prestigious examples of which can be more than a meter in lenght!

Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 16.451

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