Pipe case, carved walnut with inlaid brass, full-length figure of a man, probably Netherlands, ca.1680 - ca. 1700

Design:
Pipe case of carved walnut with brass and pewter fixtures. The case consists of a compartment for the whole clay pipe, which can be opened, allowing the pipe to be inserted. The end is not open for ventilation.

On the top side of the stem section, immediately below the bowl compartment, is a full-relief figure of a gentleman, stood with his arms akimbo. He has a sword at his left hip, and what appears to be an applied wooden stud at his right. He wears a long coat, decorated down its whole front with three inlaid twisted brass wires; beside the outermost wires is a row of pewter studs. The collar of his coat is decorated with two brass stars, one above the other, and a pewter stud either side of these. He has two brass rings near his ears to hold pewter earrings made to represent drop pearls. Above the head of the figure, on the bowl compartment, an elaborate crown appears balanced on two columns with twisted ‘Solomonic’ decoration, surmounted with a ball. The figure is stood on a sconce of Classical proportion, decorated around its top edge with a geometric pattern.

The length of the stem section is decorated with a zig-zagging geometric pattern, with regular intervals of brass studs.

The top of the bowl compartment has the carved initials ‘H B’, with three six-pointed brass stars around them. All is contained within a geometric border. On the back of the bowl is another crown, facing downwards, within a rope-patterned border. The crown has a large orb and is decorated with brass stars and pewter studs. Beneath the bowl compartment is a large carved flower, surrounded by a rope border.

On the underside of the stem section, immediately below the flower, is a male mask with what appears to be a mounted pewter strawberry or bunch of grapes immediately below. There are three sections of carved decoration running down the entire length of the stem, each with a geometric design and brass studs or stars. In the very centre is a length of inlaid twisted brass wire. About halfway is another, smaller, carved flower with brass stars on each petal. Beneath this flower is an inverted male mask, and below this are a series of hexagons, each with a brass star at its centre, inside a carved rope-pattern border.

The inside of this case is not decorated.


Construction:
The case is made from three pieces of carved walnut which are layered on top of each other and interlock to form a mechanism for opening it. The smallest piece, nearest the mouthpiece, swings away to the proper right side (it is cut with an angle for this purpose), allowing the central piece to slide downwards and to either side, which would facilitate access to the clay pipe inside the carved-out interior of the topmost section. All three pieces are linked by a thick pewter rod at the mouthpiece end.


Condition:
Given its unusual complexity, this object is in very good condition. One of the drop ‘pearl’ earrings is missing.

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 it was noted that 'one of the drop earrings [is] missing'.

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. Pipe cases with a sliding opening were common before the development of the spur on a clay pipe’s ‘heel’; the presence of this feature would cause a sliding opening to catch, hence the proliferation of hinged lids in the eighteenth century, which allowed room for the spur and provided nowhere for it to become caught.

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 bears a representation of a full-length male figure carved in high relief. It is not clear who it is supposed to be, but is a useful depiction of male fashion of the late 17th century. Similarly, the masks on the reverse of the stem section feature the long hair and cravat favoured by fashionable gentlemen of the time.

W.160-1928