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Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Finely carved meerschaum tobacco pipe with bowl in the form of
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Finely carved meerschaum tobacco pipe with bowl in the form of a black person's head, with wide brimmed basketwork hat and bowtie, amber mouthpiece, Carl Hiess, maker, Vienna, Austria, 1871-1890
This pipe is decorated with the face of a black man of African descent, wearing a basketwork hat and a bow-tie. This type of decoration was common due to the fact that from the 1600slarge numbers of Africans were enslaved in order to work on tobacco plantations in the southern United States.
The pipe is made from a material called meerschaum, a white coloured clay like mineral. It can be ornately carved to produce highly decorated pipe bowls, often with faces or human figures. The mouthpiece is made from amber.
Details
- Category:
- Smoking
- Collection:
- Sir Henry Wellcome's Museum Collection
- Object Number:
- A49442
- Materials:
- meerschaum, mouthpiece, amber, case, leather, case, wood, case, velvet and case, silk, lining
- Measurements:
-
overall: 90 mm x 195 mm x 58 mm, 20 mm, .07kg
- type:
- meerschaum tobacco pipe
- credit:
- Wellcome Trust (Purchased from Stevens)
