Artefact of the Week: “Ceci n'est pas seulement une pipe”

This week I feature an artefact from historic times, which is in the private collection of mr. George Lechler. George Lechler has run a “blasting company” in Jamaica for a long time and because of his work has encountered many different artefacts, collected them and built an interesting and extremely diverse assortment of objects from the recent to distant Jamaican past. I visited him to photograph his collection of Pre-Columbian artefacts, but when he showed me this pipe head I couldn’t resist taking a picture.

One of my grandfathers was a pipe smoker and perhaps because of that I have always been fascinated by them. I don’t really collect them and hardly know anything about them, but I think they are really an underappreciated artefact category. Smoking has been important to many people in many times and still is. Also, rather than disposable smokes like cigarettes or cigars, this is an artefact that sticks with you, making it an important part of your every-day life. Your pipe potentially says a lot about who you are.

So what does this particular pipe say about its previous owner? Well he — perhaps saying that it was a he is cutting corners, but I am just thinking like a male chauvinist here — was certainly a lecherous smoker, but there is more. According to what George told me, he got it from someone who found it in Port Royal. Some of you might know Port Royal from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and indeed — at least this part of the movies is true — Port Royal was a place of ill repute, until it was destroyed by a big quake in 1692. After that Port Royal cleaned up its act.

Very likely the pipe came from overseas — perhaps even from Gouda. It's clay, but well-made, so it would neither have been terribly expensive nor cheap to buy. Judging from the style of the pipe, I am guesstimating it dates from the early to middle 19^th century. So, although we can discount a sexist pirate because of its late date, I have the feeling it must have belonged to a sailor. Makes sense… when you’re out on the open sea with no real women aboard (that’s bad luck), at least you’d have your pipe head woman staring at you in ecstasy. 

Tobacco and sex, they tell me it's a winning combination...