A shameless copy

June 2005

For many collectors this stub stemmed figural pipe gives the immediate association with the Bou Maza of Gambier, shape number 829. Rightly so because the modeling is exactly the same. However, it is a much rarer piece, made by Julius Wingender from Höhr who launched this pipe design as number 206. More often Belgian and German companies were inspired by the leading French factories, with Gambier's designs the most often being imitated. The imitation went so far that even the characteristic French enamel painting was applied. In the nineteenth century, when copyright law did not yet exist, copying was not seen as a sin even though some manufacturers did protest. Countless smokers from the past will never have realized that their pipe was not an original one, but a copy made by another company or even another country. As a person, Bou Maza only enjoyed popularity for a short time. That was when he led the fight against the French in Algeria after Abd-el-Kader fled to Morocco. He was leader until 1848 and had to surrender due to lack of resources. In Paris, he escaped from prison and quickly fell into oblivion. The Gambier company launched this pipe shape to exploit the interest in Bou Maza. Later the design was sold as an image of an no-name Arab to a much wider group of smokers. So, a specific portrayal gradually devalued into a general country type.

Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 17.526

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