Fashionable stem

July 2007

The shape of the stem of this pipe is very unconventional. It is a reading pipe with an extra long stem that has been turned into an elegant curl. Sold as Lorenzo Postillon, this pipe does indeed give the impression of a post horn. Lorenzo is an Italian factory with its own design line and especially a particular way of finishing. The pipes are characterized by something pure, often somewhat larger and heavier, and usually in a mat finish with a light orange-brown hue. This pipe meets this in all respects, although it is more modest in design than we are used to with this maker. It is clearly a fashion item from the end of the 1960s. At that time the reading pipe was once again brought to the attention but now labeled as a television pipe. It became a short-lived quirk that didn't really catch on with the pipe smoker. That certainly applied to the special stem shapes of which this is the most extreme, in addition to a comparable model that could stand upright and had an S-shaped stem. A few years later the shopkeeper showed again reading pipes and these dated, joyous objects were never seen again. Nice to know that the consumer price in that period was between twenty and thirty guilders. A price that now makes us smile.

Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 18.717

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