Woman with woman syringe

décembre 2007

A wonderful show can be seen here. This wooden pipe bowl represents a squatted woman, which in a simple way, sitting on a pisspot using a woman's syringe. The woman's head acts as a lid for the pipe bowl and is removable. Also note the stem, which consists of a duck's head, whose beak pecks in the woman's back. Clearly there is a naive portrayal carved in a not very flexible style but therefore extremely moving. See also how her hairs are trapped in a hairnet giving her very common looks. Her clothing is just as simple and a necklace with a Christian cross as a pendant disclose a catholic background. The soft wood is finished with a lacquer, after some colour accents have been applied on spots. The signature S. Sidaine is written under the hem of the skirt in beautifully lettered red script, more of a French than a Scandinavian name. Nothing is known about the origin of this remarkable pipe. Although found in the antique trade in Copenhagen, the makers name is more French, while such white wooden pipes are more characteristic of the southern Balkan countries. In short, we are still completely in the dark about the origin. It is even more difficult to figure out who could have been the smoker of this pipe.

Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 19.054

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