Not just a lower leg

May 2025

This porcelain tobacco pipe has a truly original design. In the bowl of the pipe we recognize the stummel shape, the oval pipe bowl that was so popular after 1800. However, the designer did not use a standard heel, but modeled the bowl base into a foot stuck in a classic thin-strapped sandal, so that the pipe bowl got the meaning of thigh. The stem attachment shows another joke, there we see a hand that holds the lower leg at the ankle, with a cuffed sleeve at the stem. These are original and beautifully modeled elements that provide a certain logical rhythm. As if that were not enough, the front of the bowl was painted as if it were a classic stummel: the cityscape of Mainz, unambiguously indicated with a text in beautiful handwriting, in a rectangle with a wide gold leaf frame. This makes this pipe also a souvenir for anyone who has visited Mainz. However, it is the authentic mounting that gives this pipe such a majestic but above all classic appearance. A heavier, horn-turned stem serves as a handle for the smoker; above that we see an elegant flattened stem with the so-called button mouthpiece after a baluster knot. A green cotton cord with two tassels holds the various parts together like a bail cord, as a lifesaver in case of accidental detachment. The date lies in the first quarter of the nineteenth century.

Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 30.380

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