Serene Etruscan female head

September 2019

In the nineteenth century, portraits of people in Etruscan style have been popular for a short time. New archaeological discoveries in Italy were the inspiration for this vogue. This pipe bowl ties in with that fashion quirk from the second quarter of the nineteenth century. It is a large bowl with a height of more than ten centimeters that shows a serene Etruscan lady in historical dress. Characteristic is her slightly archaic smile along with her hairstyle with short curls around the face up to the hair band. The rest of the hairdo is corrugated and largely covered with a draped headscarf that hangs very elegantly on the stem. The lightly flattened overall shape is characteristic of the time of creation: when viewed from the side, the pipe is completely natural, but turned to the front the image appears almost two-dimensional. The preference for that flattened shape was left over from the Empire Style. A silver mounting with a dome-shaped hinged cover on the pipe bowl and a cuff ring with stem attachment emphasize the luxury of this tobacco pipe. Smoking has resulted in a beautiful colour gradient from ivory white to ocher yellow.

Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 22.971

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