Pasha with lid

September 2007

The design of this pipe bowl comes from the Gambier factory in Givet. It was produced in two sizes, a normal pipe bowl and a large size, the latter primarily intended as a presentation piece. Both pipe bowls are almost identical, although only the large version has a sater head with a grapevine at the bottom of the bust. However, the red-painted pipe bowl shown here was not made by Gambier, but came from a competing company in Ruhla in Thuringia, Germany. It is not a copy in the sense of a cast, but a new modeling with some altered details. Although this bowl is practically the same as the small version of Gambier, this version has the sater head of the large version on the bottom. This portrait head is also enclosed by a grapevine although a wonderfully large leaf has been applied to the top that does not occur with the original. The shape number 43 is pressed on the stem in intaglio. A variant from Ruhla is a fraction larger and shows shape number 172, while in the same city also the large version of Gambier was copied, even including their mark stamp JG. Particular for the Thuringian versions is that they were often sold with an earthenware lid that was attached to the pipe bowl with a thread or chain. That lid was more curious than functional, because it didn’t hold. Such a lid usually got broken quickly.

Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 18.842

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