BRANDYWINE RIVER MUSEUM PRESENTS
EXHIBITION OF ANTIQUE SMOKING PIPES
(April 2003, #012)


Since the 16th century, tobacco use has resulted in the creation of an amazing variety of devices for smoking, sniffing and storing its leaves. One of the most extraordinary tobacco instruments- the smoking pipe- has provided its owners with visual and smoking pleasure, as well as prestige.

From May 24 through July 27, the Brandywine River Museum presents a special exhibition of antique smoking pipes. The Art and Design of Antique Smoking Pipes features approximately 80 outstanding European and American pipes of clay, porcelain, wood and meerschaum. These examples dramatically demonstrate how this utilitarian and ubiquitous utensil gradually evolved into an art form expressed in many mediums.

Intrigued by Native American tobacco smoking, 16th-century explorers introduced tobacco to Europeans as a novelty. It soon became a fashionable pastime that launched the clay pipe industry. Early clay pipe bowls were small because tobacco was expensive. By 1750, however, prices for tobacco from the American colonies dropped and pipe bowls doubled in width and depth. Because clay pipes broke easily, they were plain and utilitarian in appearance. Some makers added decorative interest or stamped impressions on the bowl and stem.

In the 19th-century, as pipe makers experimented with other materials to make durable and decorative pipes, three French manufacturers, Duméril-Leurs, Fiolet and Gambier, offered clay pipes in over 3,000 different designs featuring people, animals, plants and ornate or symbolic motifs with enameled colors and raised fanciful décor. In the United States, clay pipe manufacturers produced less ornate, more functional clay pipes. Of notable exception among them are those made by A. Peyrau, a French immigrant living in New York City in the late 1800s who made a series of terracotta pipe bowls with caricature heads of contemporary celebrities such as P.T. Barnum, Joseph Pulitzer and William March "Boss" Tweed.

Pipes were made in other ceramic materials such as earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. Beginning in the mid 1700s, English potters made elaborate showpiece pipes, known as "puzzle pipes." Such pipes feature long coils of clay twisted and looped into elaborate, nonsensical designs intended to amuse rather than function as smoking implements. Prattware, Staffordshire and Whieldonware potteries appear to have been the most frequent makers of these novelties.

Porcelain pipes are among the most beautiful forms featuring neoclassical, Romanesque, mythological, entomological and military motifs. Many were produced in large quantities at well-known European porcelain factories, such as Meissen. These pipes proved impractical and unappealing for smoking due to the non-porous materialís inability to breathe. As a result, porcelain pipes were never produced in the United States.

Another material, meerschaum (meaning "sea foam" in German), proved to have superior smoking and carving qualities and became the medium of choice for craftsmen in the early 1800s. Between 1850 and 1925, this soft and pliant mineral, which derives from Turkey and parts of Asia, inspired the finest craftsmen in Berlin, London, Paris, Prague, Venice and Vienna to sculpt exquisite designs in smoking implements. Some European meerschaum carvers immigrated to the United States and settled in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and other urban centers and carved pipes with American motifs and subjects.

Antique wooden pipes were made from more than 25 different tree species, both domestic and exotic. While most did not prove wholly satisfactory for smoking implements, many woods permitted tremendous craftsmanship and use of imagination. A distinctive wood pipe style known as the "Ulmer" originated in Ulm, Germany in the 18th century. It was made of boxwood, walnut or bog and decorated with materials such as horn, silver, brass, amber and other hardwoods for the stem, windcap and accessories.

By the mid 19th century, a variety of heath shrub, Erica arborea, native to the Mediterranean coast, was discovered to have exceptional qualities for smoking tobacco. Commonly known as "briar," this lightweight wood was porous and enhanced the flavor of tobacco by providing a "sweet smoke." The briar pipe industry began in France in the village of St. Claude, where, by 1892, 66 different briar pipe factories thrived. Because of the wood's superior grain, many briars were hand-carved with ornate and delicate shapes and designs.

The exhibition, The Art and Design of Antique Smoking Pipes, offers a rare opportunity to closely examine how expert craftsmanship and popular culture together created an art form. The pipes in the exhibition have been loaned from private collections.

Exhibiting American art in a restored 19th-century grist mill, the Brandywine River Museum is internationally know of its unparalleled collection of works by three generations of Wyeths and its fine collection of American illustration, still life and landscape painting. Located on U.S. Route 1 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, the museum is open daily, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. except Christmas Day. Admission is $6 for adults; $3 for seniors ages 65 and over, students with I.D., and children ages 6 to 12; and free for children under six and Brandywine Conservancy members. Individual audio tours can be rented for $3. Group rates are available with advance reservations. For more information, please call 610-388-2700.
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