Cigar holder in artful turning work

March 2017

The cigar has been extremely popular since the mid-nineteenth century. That resulted in an enormous stream of new pipe designs to smoke the cigar stump. Meerschaum is the favorite material, not in the least because of the high absorption and the attractive colours after some time of use. Alternative products remain in the minority. They cannot compete with the positive properties of meerschaum. This cigar pipe ins oneof that category of alternative products. It is a rather unexpected example, both in terms of material and design. No natural raw materials were used at all for this pipe, as was customary in the nineteenth century, but plastic. This also points to a more recent date. In terms of shape, this cigar holder has been designed as a German so-called Gesteckpfeife, with a tall bowl that runs almost parallel to the long rising stem. The whole is composed of separate parts that are assembled into a pipe with screw taps. Main material is a beautiful glossy black plastic that is interspersed in two places with the same type of plastic in a light brown shade. In contrast parts in ivory are added, which further emphasizes the composition of the pipe out of several parts. The inlaid decoration on the pipe is in ivory as well. Everything indicates that it is not a serial product. Rather it is a piece of artful turning, made as a competition piece by an amateur craftsman or an object made at an arts and crafts course. Constructing a pipe from so many parts is time-consuming and therefore not commercially feasible. Moreover, it is mainly a curiosity than a practical utensil. The only downside of this product is the uneven placement of the dots on top of the stem that indicate a moment of carelessness during the noble handicraft.

Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 22.224

Archive object of month