Queu de Paris

January 2009

Queu de Paris

This pipe is a beautiful invention in terms of design. The bowl shows a standing woman, fashionably dressed in a pleated frock, a cloth draped over the shoulders. The posture of the person is that of an old woman slightly bent, precisely what makes the bowl easy to approach while tampering the pipe. No high-fashioned coquette is shown, that would be too flamboyant for a clay pipe smoker. Just the portrayal of an old woman makes this a pipe suitable for a unpretentious, aged man. On the stem the product bears the name of the maker, Jean-Jacques Knoedgen in Brée in Belgium. Yet he is not the inventor of this design. Knoegden bought the mould for this pipe from another manufacturer, who had engraved his factory name under the stem decoration. Knoedgen concealed this inscription with a simple relief, but if you look closely, you will recognize the shape of a name tag in these trivial motifs. From a preserved catalog we know that the Gisclon company in Lille had such a design in production. That could be the origin of this press mould. The enamel colours in yellow and pink are characteristic of Knoedgen in the old days.

Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 19.458



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