Forty years public museum

18 juin 2015

On 18 June 1975 the first permanent exhibition of our collection was opened on Frederiksplein in Amsterdam. This week we celebrate that our pipe collection is for forty years open as a public museum. Of course a lot has been changed in the mean time. From a small exhibition of a few hundreds of clay pipes the museum evolved into the current: a canal house with 2.000 representative objects, in clay, porcelain, meerschaum, briar and whatever more. Looking back we notice a continuation of the passion for collecting, as well as researching and publishing. Step by step our knowledge and understanding of historical smoking progressed.

Tobacco as a colonial commodity

4 juin 2015

The Noord-Brabants Museum in 's-Hertogenbosch opens an exhibition dedicated to the well-known colonial products: coffee, tea, tobacco and spices. The Amsterdam Pipe Museum sends in a series of loans to give content to the subject of tobacco. No less than 80 of our items will be exhibited and partly illustrated in the full-color catalogue. Our loans vary from pre-Columbian pipes to silver tobacco jars. A special object form our reserves is an intricate case of a pipe representative, that holds seven layers of drawers with twelve briar pipes each. It is the first time this case will be shown to the public.

Pipe moulds

1 juin 2015

Every spring our curator sets off for a two weeks journey, without leaving the premises. His goal: discovering moulds. This sounds odd, but it is his time dedicated to the unique collection of pipe moulds in the reserves of the museum. The majority was bought in the 1980’s from the bankrupt Goedewaagen pipe and ceramic factory. Immediately after being brought in, the collection of several thousands of tools have been studied, but not all of them were cleaned right away. This annual ritual enables us to discover more about the craft of pipe making, alongside with the photo sessions capturing all details. During the recent journey several unknown signatures were discovered, many mould are clean and presentable now. The results are shown on our website.