Unusual Pirkenhammer
mars 2025
A porcelain factory has been established in the Bohemian town of Pirkenhammer since 1803, which became of great importance for the development of the German porcelain pipe. The company reached its prosperity due to the partners Johann Martin Fischer and Christoph Reichenbach. Marked pieces are sometimes provided with the impressed intaglio mark "F&R", but most objects left the factory unmarked. Famous are the Pirkenhammer pipe bowls with high church windows painted around the bowl, through which you can see the surroundings in miniature. The pipe depicted here is slightly hexagonally flattened and has a baluster shape at the base and a hinged lid as a cover. The hexagonal shape is copied from the church window pipes, but here a plain background was used, decorated with three raised medallions. Each of these was given a hand-painted decoration of a hunter flanked by a squirrel and a fox. Bright yellow, green and salmon are fashionable colours of the 1830s and shortly thereafter. Also note the marbled stem that suggests an alternative material. Fischer and Reichenbach reaped great success with their colourful pipes. This was partly due to the rich montages with buffalo horn, combined with ivory that emphasized the luxurious aspect. After 1860, however, consumer behaviour shifted from pipes to tableware and curiosities.
Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 30.034
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