Design drawing for a presentation pipe

January 2012

IIn the third quarter of the nineteenth century, a series of three drawings was made for a display pipe by the company Félix Wingender in Chokier near Liège. The pipe represents the head of an Indian with a feather headdress and nicely enough the pipe has a lid with button. The three design drawings executed in color show the three sides of the pipe bowl. However, we see unexpected differences between the drawings. The main thing is that the figure is depicted in two cases with mustache and goatee, the third version is beardless. That this last design is actually executed as a pipe is proven with a presentation pipe, known for years in a collection in Belgium. It is unexpected that the factory stamp on the drawing is also applied on the bottom of the pipe. What makes the drawings so unique is that they are the only surviving examples of clay pipe designs. It is special to see the difference between a two-dimensional pipe bowl and a real executed one. Then it turns out that the drawing is more beautiful. The pipe of the drawing is more elegant than the three-dimensional version. Because of its large size it is rather massive and primitive. Of course, the question remains whether the version with mustache and goatee is also designed as a display pipe. It would be nice if it would turn up somewhere in the future.

Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 20.891c

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