This collection was started in about 1976 and is still growing today. Although the collection began with a few different types of tobacco pipes, I soon came to appreciate the beauty of porcelain and the artistry of the early hand painted pipe bowls, so I decided to concentrate my efforts on just this genre.

The collection currently contains 160 specimens, dating from the last half of the eighteenth century to the last quarter of the nineteenth century. There are some examples of the early portrait bowls and later figural bowls. Most of the pipe bowls are of the ellipsoid form, known as Stummels, and decorated with copies of paintings that were popular during the nineteenth century. These early pipe bowls were luxury items in their day, only accessible to the wealthy. Sadly, after about the third quarter of the nineteenth century, hand painting gave way to print-and-tint and then full transfer printing. This dramatically increased production, but the quality of the hand painted bowls was then lost. The pipe bowls presented on this website are from the “golden age” and not from the later mass produced era. 

Special thanks to my wife for her forbearance over the years.