Drop-stem Smoking Pipe
- Description
- Drop-stem smoking pipe with bowl carved into a bird's claw. According to Carol Benes Miller, the donor, "The pipe was from Montgomery Ward's as Dad worked there 27 yrs. as their gunsmith." She recalled her father, Josef Benes, smoking it from 1900 until 1915 when he passed away. Her parents had immigrated from Chocen, Bohemia in 1882 to Chicago, Illinois, where they brought up four daughters. The pipe bowl is made from meerschaum, a clay material whose name translates into “sea foam” in German for it is often found floating in the Black Sea. Meerschaum was a popular pipe-making material in Germany and is frequently carved with German motifs.
- Date made
- c. 1875
- date made
- ca 1900
- user
- Benes, Josef
- Measurements
- overall: 23 cm x 4 cm; 9 1/16 in x 1 9/16 in
- ID Number
- 1982.0767.02
- catalog number
- 1982.0767.02
- accession number
- 1982.0767
- subject
- Smoking
- Immigration
- See more items in
- Division of Cultural History: Ethnic
- Many Voices, One Nation
- Exhibition
- Many Voices, One Nation
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History