Rare advertising paper
febbraio 2026
A well-known pipe shop had been located at Reguliersbreestraat 7 in Amsterdam since 1854. The founder was Barend Heinrich Wasmann, a German trader who focused on the retail sale of smoking paraphernalia. His shop was a long pipe store with display cases along both long walls, ending in a workshop on the other side of the building block with the address Amstel 6. Wasmann was a household name for high-quality smoking equipment, but simple pipes and related curiosities were also sold here. In order to give their business greater recognition, they had wafer-thin wrapping paper printed measuring 30 by 33 centimeters. This fine paper was used daily to safely pack fragile objects. It is understandable that such wrapping paper is extremely rare these days; who keeps something like that? This sheet teaches us a lot about Wasmann's range in the period shortly before the First World War. Printed full of advertisements and images, it looks like a manufacturer's catalogue. The full breadth of their range is listed. We see mentions in text or image for simple clay pipes and their briar counterparts, up to Bavarian gesteck pipes. It is striking that water pipes have even been given a central place. In short, the sheet is crammed with information about articles that were popular at that time, right up to the furthest corners. In our collection we have various pipes from this famous shop, and now even the wrapping paper, both temporary and transient, but also informative.
Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 30.503
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