An amusing pig

July 2009

Original figural pipes in briar wood are not so common. When the briar industry comes up, the figurative era of the tobacco pipe is largely over. It is not surprising that the briar makers mainly focus on design they can make by using a machine driven lathe and not on decoration. Nevertheless, in the margin there is still a stream of curiosities, mostly supplementary to the market. This amusing standing pig is a wonderful example of this. Pontifically it stands with its legs on the ground and houses a tobacco bowl in the back. Just below the tail a caoutchouc stem has been set that shows a slight kink. The fact that the text "MODELE DEPOSE" is printed with a stamp indicates that the creator of the design expected a good turnover. However, the question is whether that has been achieved, this pipe design is nowadays quite rare.

Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 19.840

Archive object of month