Amsterdam Pipe Museum

History

The Amsterdam Pipe Museum acts as the ultimate guardian of the heritage of the pipe and the culture of smoking in Netherland. This includes tobacco pipes, cigars pipes, opium pipes, water pipes and all the accessories without limit in time or space.

Pipe smoking is a worldwide phenomenon with a history of more than 25 centuries. While the tobacco itself has gone up in the smoke, the pipe remains as a testimony of this history. Ever changing in shape, in material and decoration, in regional characteristics. The Amsterdam Pipe Museum displays these objects for of their historical and cultural value.

In the very centre of Amsterdam, the exhibition offers an overview of the global smoking culture over 2,500 years. Apart from the history, it involves design, art and kitsch, European as well as ethnographic. The pipes contain a world of stories about rituals, wealth, status and personal enjoyment of the former user. During the tour through the museum the visitor gets to know the smoker from days gone by.

The museum is located in the beautiful ambience of an Amsterdam canal house from the golden age along one of the main canals. As a nineteenth-century collectors cabinet the house is furnished with antique cabinets and fitting display cases. Yet the collection in created during one generation, the life's work of a passionate collector who has opened up his home to the public. You are cordially welcome!

Collection

The collection is built up from a wide range of interests: from archaeology to decorative arts and ethnography. This has led to a very extensive collection of more than 30,000 objects. These include fragments of clay pipes from the Dutch soil which mainly serve as a reference collection, but also artistic and folksy pipes with outstanding carving or coloured paintings, such as painted porcelain tobacco pipes from Germany. The ethnographic collections include pre-Columbian pipes, but also pipes from Dark Africa and opium pipes. In order to manage a museum collection of this size, it has been divided into specialized devisions, for instance by materials from which an object is made. In total there are eighteen such sub-devisions. All these collection departments can be found on the website www.pipemuseum.nl, including a full set of photos on every object. From the museum collection, the 1,000 best examples have been selected to show in this pipe portal.

Guided tours

The Amsterdam Pipe Museum is a surprising experience for every visitor. Everyone is received personally by a guide who always offers a tailor-made story. If you come from an Arab country and you want to know everything about the hookah, you can do that; Asians may be more interested in smoking metal pipes, as there is tradition. There is so much to discover. Question and answer make the visit to the Amsterdam Pipe Museum a complete experience.

The enthusiast can purchase a souvenir or a serious pipe in the museum shop. The Amsterdam Pipe Shop offers an extensive choice for every budget.

Research

In addition to the public function, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum has a research task. For this historical research a library has been built up with over 6,000 titles. In addition, the museum manages a huge documentation center. Over twenty linear meters with A-4 format boxes contain many thousands of leaflets, pamphlets, articles, advertisements, tobacco packaging, etc. They form the paper archive of the world's smoking culture.

Many publications have been published on the basis of the collection and this documentation. These include books that are widely used by archaeologists, such as the Handbook on the Dutch Clay Tobacco Pipe or the book on the Marks and Ordinances of the Gouda pipe makers Guilt. Specialist articles in professional journals treat tobacco pipes or smoking habits of peoples all over the world. Some of these articles can be consulted on this pipe-portal.eu.

Facts about the Amsterdam Pipe Museum

founded:                            1969
management:                  Pijpenkabinet Foundation
size  of the collection:   32,000 objects
permanent exhibit:        2,200 objects
library:                                 6,200 titles         
documentation files:     20 metres
photo archive:                  19,000 recordings
visitors:                               7,000 per year 
web visitors:                     75,000 per year

Öffnungszeiten
Monday - Saturday: 12 am - 6 pm
Closed on Sundays, Kings Day, Christmas Day and January 1st.

Eintrittsgelder

Adults:                    € 10,-
Youngsters 6-18:    € 5,-
Children < 6:         free