Artwork Page for Pipe

Details / Information for Pipe

Pipe

1800s–1900s

Africa, Southern Africa, South Africa, Xhosa-style maker

(s)
Medium
Wood, copper, glass beads, sinew, leather, and thread
Measurements
Overall: 20.3 cm (8 in.)
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 2010.199
Public Domain
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Location
108B Southern African
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Did You Know?

The basic form of pipes like this one derives from examples made from clay, which the Dutch introduced at the end of the 1500s.

Description

Mothers often used long-stemmed pipes like this because they helped direct smoke away from the babies they carried on their backs. Carved by men, pipes were used by both men and women. A female maker added beaded fringe using a color scheme typical of Xhosa beadwork. The miniature apron suspended from the fringe suggests a woman’s garment, and thus ownership of this pipe. Social and leisure practices, smoking and snuffing tobacco were also associated with the ancestors and with ideas of fertility and procreation. Inherited between individuals and families, pipes have connected clans and generations and thus linked the worldly present with the ancestral past.
A dark wood pipe features a tall, smooth bowl on the left, leading to a long stem sweeping diagonally upward. Thin copper wire coils wrap around the wood in regular, metallic bands. Beneath the stem, a dense fringe of red, white, blue, and black glass beads hangs in a rhythmic curtain. From its center, a small triangular beaded ornament dangles, echoing the vibrant geometric pattern against the dark wood.

Pipe

1800s–1900s

Africa, Southern Africa, South Africa, Xhosa-style maker(s)

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