Large pipe bowl, carved, wood, 19th century, Czechoslovakian or Yugoslavian

The word 'nazdar' has been carved into the wooden tobacco pipe bowl. This is an informal greeting in the Czech language, so the bowl is thought to originate from either what is now the Czech Republic or Slovakia or perhaps even the former Yugoslavia (modern day Serbia and Montenegro).

Tobacco pipe bowls come in a range of designs, from the simple to, as here, the highly extravagant. Such outlandish and impractical bowls are likely to have been given as gifts or perhaps as souvenirs. (Pictured here with two other tobacco pipe bowls, A14868 and A26495).