The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Pipe

1800s–1900s

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

(s)
Wood, copper, glass beads, sinew, leather, and thread
Overall: 20.3 cm (8 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 2010.199
Location: 108B Southern African

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.
  • 2004
    Finch & Co., London
    2010
    (Jacaranda Tribal, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2010–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Pemberton, John, and Smith College Museum of Art. African Beaded Art: Power and Adornment. Northampton, MA, Smith College Museum of Art, 2008 cat. 114 ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org
  • The Art of Daily Life: Portable Objects From Southeast Africa. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 17, 2011-February 26, 2012).
    Cleveland Museum of Art, (4/16/11-2/26/12); "The Art of Daily Life: Portable Objects from Southeast Africa" cat. no. 10
  • {{cite web|title=Pipe|url=false|author=|year=1800s–1900s|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2010.199