Pipe case; carved walnut; with head of a man; Netherlands, ca.1680 - ca.1720

Design:
Pipe case of walnut carved in high relief, with brass and ivory fixtures. The case consists of a compartment for the pipe bowl, which can be opened, allowing the pipe to be inserted; a stem section; a ventilation hole at the mouthpiece end.

The endpiece of this pipe case is embellished with a ring of ivory or bone. The stem section is turned and carved along its length. In the middle is an ornamental boss, below which the stem is pierced by four elongated teardrop-shaped slots. Above the boss is carved a regular linear pattern which terminates at the base of the bowl compartment.

The bowl compartment has a strong forward-sweep, and is decorated with the carved head of a man. The bust wears a scuttle-shaped hat or helmet, has a strong chin, aquiline nose and heavy moustache. Below his chin, the spur of the pipe case is decorated with a scroll which loops back on itself, creating a pierced section within the loop.

On top of the bowl compartment is a brass hinge.

Construction:
The case is made from two pieces of walnut: a lid and a main body. The part of the case in which the stem of the pipe would have resided would probably have been bored using a heated metal rod.

The lid is attached to the main body by a brass hinge. It closes with an brass catch which fastens into a slot on the lid.


Condition:
This pipe case is quite worn through use, and the facial features of the figure are quite rubbed. The brass hinge is fairly discoloured and corroded.

Given by W. Sanders Fiske

Given by W. Sanders-Fiske, a collector who lived locally to the V&A, as part of a collection of pipe cases (museum nos. W.144 to 179-1928) in November 1928. RP 28/10633. He later donated to the Museum his important collection of 18th century Staffordshire porcelain figures.

H. Clifford Smith, in a note on a minute paper (RP 28/9292), 02/11/1928: ‘The collection of pipe-cases is undoubtedly a very interesting one, and every item differs.’ On entry to the Museum the condition of the object was noted as 'slightly worn'.

Clay tobacco pipes are fragile, so cases such as this one were used to ensure they would remain intact when carried outside by their owners. Post-1690 a spur on the pipe’s ‘heel’ developed which made them easier to hold as one could do so without the risk of burning one’s fingers. For long pipes, this also meant it could be rested on a table without leaving a burn mark. The hinged lid tended to be favoured after this date as a sliding closure would catch on the spur. This case would have contained a relatively short pipe.

Many pipe cases featured an opening at the end of the stem section, possibly to, in the words of W. Sanders Fiske, ‘keep the pipe sweet and clean’.

Tobacco smoking as a popular pastime was spread across Europe during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), in which the Dutch Republic was involved for twenty-nine of those years. By the time of Queen Anne, a gross (144) of Dutch pipes cost 2s in England.

Initially all tobacco entered Europe via the Spanish colonies in the Americas, though England later began importing from its own colony of Virginia. The United East India Company later established tobacco plantations in the Dutch colony of Indonesia.

Smoking leaf tobacco in clay pipes became established in all parts of Europe during the course of the 17th century, following its introduction from Mexico by Francesco Fernandez in 1558. It was consumed as a fashionable and healthy substance by adult men and women, but its relatively high cost meant that its use was generally restricted to the mercantile classes and above. The fragile clay pipes used to smoke tobacco were also initially quite expensive, and were sometimes highly decorated, so protective wooden pipe cases were developed to contain them.

This case would have contained a relatively short pipe which could have been easily carried outdoors inside a pocket. Long pipes, of the type made famous in the paintings of many Dutch masters of the seventeenth-century (for a good example see Jan Steen’s <i>As the Old Sing So Pipe the Young</i> (1668-70), tended to be smoked at home or at an inn. These were considered more desirable as they could hold more tobacco, and because they allowed the smoke to cool before it was inhaled, although they were more fragile and unwieldly.

This pipe case is richly carved with a depiction of a man’s head. The bust is probably supposed to be a generic depiction of a ‘Turk’, i.e. an inhabitant of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey was, at the time, closely associated with the consumption of tobacco.

W.163-1928