The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Pipe bowl

early to mid-1900s

Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Luluwa or Luntu maker

Wood, iron, and copper alloy
Overall: 6 x 7.4 x 24 cm (2 3/8 x 2 15/16 x 9 7/16 in.)
Jo Hershey Selden Fund 2008.152
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The cavity for the tobacco is positioned in the belly of a figure who holds himself up with bent arms on the pipe.

Description

Tobacco smoking had important social connotations in Central Africa, denoting age, status, and gender. Perhaps the enlarged hand expressed physical and spiritual powers and indicates that this work belonged to a chief. Figuratively carved pipes and snuff mortars constitute important genres of Luluwa decorative arts. As personal objects reflecting the prominence and success of their male and sometimes female owners, they are usually the creative work of virtuoso artists and take a variety of often imaginative shapes.
  • dates unknown, by at least 1987
    Private collection, possibly France
    1990 or later
    possibly Galerie Ratton-Hourdé, Paris, France
    dates unknown
    Private collection, Belgium
    unknown-2008
    (Galerie Joaquin Pecci, Brussels, Belgium, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2008-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Gérard Berjonneau & Jean-Louis Sonnery, eds. Rediscovered Masterpieces of African Art (Boulogne: ARTS 135/Paris: Fondation Dapper, 1987), fig. 292.
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 41
    Petridis, Constantijn. Luluwa: Central African Art between Heaven and Earth. 2018, 169. Reproduced; p. 169, fig. 146
    Rondeau, James, Constantijn Petridis, Yaëlle Biro, Herbert M. Cole, Kassim Kone, Babatunde Lawal, Wilfried Van Damme, and Susan Mullin Vogel. The language of beauty in African art. 2022.
  • The Language of Beauty in African Art. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (April 3-July 31, 2022) https://kimbellart.org/exhibition/language-beauty-african-art; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (November 20, 2022-February 27, 2023) https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/9344/the-language-of-beauty-in-african-art.
  • {{cite web|title=Pipe bowl|url=false|author=|year=early to mid-1900s|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2008.152