{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O321884"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O321884/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014HC9180/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014HC9180/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2014HC9180","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014HC9181","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014HC9182","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014HC9183","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014HC9184","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O321884/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O321884","accessionNumber":"W.151-1928","objectType":"Pipe case","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"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.\r\n\r\nThis 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 &lt;i&gt;As the Old Sing So Pipe the Young&lt;/i&gt; (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.\r\n\r\nThe Netherlands was closely connected with the pastime of pipe-smoking. Cities such as Gouda developed a reputation for producing high-quality clay pipes which were sold around Europe. In Britain, during the reign of Queen Anne, a ‘gross’ (i.e. 144) of Dutch pipes sold for 2 shillings.\r\n","physicalDescription":"<u>Design</u>:\r\nPipe case of walnut with brass 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.\r\n\r\nThe stem section has a circular cross-section and tapers toward the endpiece, which is covered with brass sleeve. On this sleeve is a simple engraved design of rings and lines.\r\n\r\nThe bowl compartment has a fairly pronounced forward-sweep, and is bordered with a strip of brass where it meets the lid. The lid sweeps underneath the main body. There are two small holes either side of the spur on the lid. On top of the bowl compartment is a brass hinge-plate.\r\n\r\nThe inside of this case is not decorated.\r\n\r\n\r\n<u>Construction</u>:\r\nThe case is made from two pieces of walnut: a lid and a main body. The brass strip opposite the lid is mounted with brass tacks, as is the hinge-plate. The brass sleeve at the bottom of the stem section is simply wrapped around. 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.\r\n\r\nThe lid is held shut by brass snap closure.\n\r\n\r\n<u>Condition</u>:\r\nThe brass hinge-plate and snap closure are both quite corroded. The two small holes on the spur could be the remnant of another missing mount.\r\n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"walnut","id":"AAT12476"},{"text":"brass","id":"AAT10946"}],"techniques":[{"text":"engraving","id":"AAT53829"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Walnut with brass mounts","categories":[{"text":"Woodwork","id":"THES48877"},{"text":"Household objects","id":"THES48939"},{"text":"Smoking accessories","id":"THES49036"},{"text":"Ephemera","id":"THES252985"},{"text":"Containers","id":"THES48972"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2014HC9180","2014HC9181","2014HC9182","2014HC9183","2014HC9184"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"014","id":"THES302029"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Pipe case","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Netherlands","id":"x29020"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1700-1720","earliest":"1700-01-01","latest":"1720-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by W. Sanders Fiske","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Length","value":"28","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"7.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"outside","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"bowl","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"6.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"inside","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"bowl","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'P.C 3 (22)'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"On a paper label inside the lid"}],"objectHistory":"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.\r\n\r\nH. 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.’","historicalContext":"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. This case would have held a relatively short pipe; a Dutch long pipe was usually around 55cm in length. The hinged lid tended to be favoured after this date as a sliding closure would catch on the spur.\r\n\r\nBy this date, in England, a swept-forward pipe-bowl had fallen out of fashion and was replaced by a more upright type. However, on the continent the leaning bowl persisted well into the eighteenth century. Clay pipes were made with barrel-shaped bowls up until the late 17th century. This pipe case was clearly designed to accommodate a pipe with a straight-sided bowl, which would suggest a later date.\n\nTobacco 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.\r\n\r\nInitially 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.\r\n\r\nMost eighteenth-century 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’.","briefDescription":"Pipe case, walnut with plain brass mounts, probably Netherlands, 1700-1720","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"p.222","free":"Sanders Fiske, W. Tobacco Pipe Cases, <i>The Connoisseur</i> , December 1925, LXXIII(292), pp. 218-231"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["W.151-1928"],"accessionNumberNum":"151","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1928,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-11","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}