Amsterdam Pipe Museum

The Amsterdam Pipe Museum, originally established as the Pijpenkabinet, is located on Amsterdam’s historic Prinsengracht canal. Founded in 1969, the museum has grown from a private collection into a nationally recognized institution. Today, it houses more than 40,000 objects that chart the history of pipes and smoking culture. The collection spans an extraordinary range—from 2,500-year-old pre-Columbian pipes to finely carved meerschaum, porcelain, and opium pipes—offering a rich perspective on both the material and cultural history of tobacco use.

Although the museum’s principal focus is on pipes, its holdings also reflect broader cultural and artistic trends. Among its treasures are several remarkable pieces of Delft faience. Closely tied to the tobacco trade, these include snuff jars, tiles, and a wonderful tobacco box.

A remarkable tobacco box in the collection, formerly part of the Aronson Collection, was produced under Johannes van Duyn, owner of the De Porceleyne Schotel (The Porcelain Dish) factory from 1764 to 1772, or his widow Van Duijn–van Kampen, who ran the factory from 1772 to 1773. With its octagonal body, gently undulating vertical walls, and eight short legs, the box echoes the form of contemporary silver tobacco containers. Typically produced using a mold for consistency, it includes both an inner lid to preserve the tobacco’s freshness and a decorative outer lid topped with a statuette of a seated tobacco merchant. Painted with a mixture of Chinese Wan-Li motifs—stylized artemisia leaves, pomegranates, and scrollwork—the jar exemplifies the fusion of design trends and practical function that characterized 18th-century Delftware.

Fittingly, in this museum dedicated to the culture of tobacco, Delft tobacco jars are represented as well. Two particularly striking examples, both marked 8 B:P, depict the Amsterdam Old Waag. One jar bears, on its reverse, a vignette of the tobacco firm Jillisse & Jamin, showing the so-called Oude Waag on the Dam—demolished in 1808 because it obstructed King Louis Napoleon’s view from the Royal Palace. This jar is numbered N 9. on the front. A second jar in the collection, decorated with the same motif, bears the number N 16. The relatively high numbering indicates the importance of the shop, where at least sixteen of such jars must once have stood.

Together, these pieces illustrate how the Amsterdam Pipe Museum not only preserves the instruments and traditions of smoking but also sheds light on the ways Delft faience intersected with the world of tobacco. These objects are another great example of Delftware connecting craftsmanship, practical use, and aesthetic appeal.