A cafe pipe from France

March 2007

This café pipe is beautifully executed and thus goes beyond the copies from the German Westerwald, made by millions there. The bowl of this pipe is a fraction smaller and sharp in modelé. On each of the six sides around the bowl two images have been made. Instead of the usual tavern motifs such as the symbols from the card game, a mug, cones or billiard balls, in this case flowers and two dancing figures can be seen. The engraving of this work is also much finer and less obtrusive than with the German counterparts and that makes this object a highlight. Finally, this pipe bowl is not made of the common white backing clay, but made of brown clay. After baking, the relief work was painted and then the pipe was covered with transparent varnish. The horizontal bands were furthermore accentuated with bronze paint, which resembles the much more chic gold. That finish was the most luxurious that the smoker could get at the time, of course due to the labor-intensive painting of the pipe. The maker is the Bonnaud company from Marseille, which stamped its factory name on the underside of the stem.

Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 18.413

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