Pipe Bowl (possibly 1800s): Art, History and Details

Pipe Bowl (possibly 1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Carved from a deep green, translucent stone with a highly polished surface, this exquisite example of an extremely rare type of pipe bowl originates from the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. Like the few other known examples, this pipe bowl would have been complemented by a stem, now lost, made from wood or reed or another less durable material. It is believed that such nephrite pipe bowls were copied from stone examples introduced by 17th-century Dutch settlers in the Cape region. In southern Africa, smoking tobacco and taking snuff were and still are enjoyed as activities that establish or solidify harmonious social relationships. In addition to their practical function as smoking devices, pipes of unusual and therefore costly materials and in fancy and refined shapes and forms, like this example, served as markers of rank and status and indicated prestige and socioeconomic prominence.

Object facts

• Title: Pipe Bowl
• Date: possibly 1800s
• Culture: Africa, Southern Africa, South Africa, Southern Nguni-style maker
• Type: Tools and Equipment
• Technique: Nephrite and metal
• Dimensions: Overall: 5.5 cm (2 3/16 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 2012.42

A detail from the museum

This object is made of nephrite, one of two different mineral species called jade; the other is jadeite.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Art and Ambiguity: Perspectives on the Brenthurst Collection of Southern African Art, exhibition catalogue, 1991, Johannesburg Art Gallery.
• Klopper, Sandra and Karel Nel, The Art of Southeast Africa from the Conru Collection, Milan: 5 Continents, 2008.
• Lewin, David 2007, The Spirit of Africa: Southern Africa by Design, exhibition catalogue, 24 April- 30 September, Clayarch Gimhae Museum, Gyeongsangnam-ho, South Korea.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.