Antique Clay Hill Tribe Ceramic Pipe, Burma/Myanmar (3474C-WKE) $105

Description

Smoking tobacco has been an integral part of Northern Thailand and Burma/Myanmar Hill-Tribes culture for centuries. Unglazed mould made black earthenware clay pottery pipes like this are found buried by farmers when preparing their fields. This pipe was made in two parts, a rounded bowl on a flat-footed base and an extended stem. The bowl has decorative large, pointed spurs on top and the sides and smaller spurs the lower part. The stem has elaborate traditional adornments of meander designs, thick lines in relief, and rounded raised ridges ending in a smooth undecorated surface. In her book Burmese Crafts Past and Present, Sylvia Frasier-Lu shows a similar pipe she says was made in multiple provincial pottery villages (p. 205) in Myanmar/Burma dated to the Pagan Period that ended in 1297 that is a prototype for this more modern version.  This functional-and-utilitarian pipe made in the late 18th to early 19th-century is very similar to these in size, decoration, and overall composition and is probably from Mandalay. There are small chips on the bowl lip and body, a loss on the end of its stem and otherwise in very good condition. This is a unique gift for any pipe smoker, although we recommend it for decorative purposes only.

Sources

Fraser-Lu, S. Burmese Crafts: Past and Present. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Oxford University Press, 1994.