Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Source Description
Mothers often used long-stemmed pipes like this because they helped direct smoke away from the babies they carried on their backs. Carved by men, pipes were used by both men and women. A female maker added beaded fringe using a color scheme typical of Xhosa beadwork. The miniature apron suspended from the fringe suggests a woman’s garment, and thus ownership of this pipe. Social and leisure practices, smoking and snuffing tobacco were also associated with the ancestors and with ideas of fertility and procreation. Inherited between individuals and families, pipes have connected clans and generations and thus linked the worldly present with the ancestral past.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
168416
label
Pipe
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
168416
contentType
object
title
Pipe
description
Mothers often used long-stemmed pipes like this because they helped direct smoke away from the babies they carried on their backs. Carved by men, pipes were used by both men and women. A female maker added beaded fringe using a color scheme typical of Xhosa beadwork. The miniature apron suspended from the fringe suggests a woman’s garment, and thus ownership of this pipe. Social and leisure practices, smoking and snuffing tobacco were also associated with the ancestors and with ideas of fertility and procreation. Inherited between individuals and families, pipes have connected clans and generations and thus linked the worldly present with the ancestral past.
date
1800s–1900s
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60757219
genreSpecific
Tools and Equipment
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 20.3 cm (8 in.)
cul
Africa, Southern Africa, South Africa, Xhosa-style maker(s)
accession
2010.199
Source extras
tec
Wood, copper, glass beads, sinew, leather, and thread
tombstone
Pipe, 1800s–1900s. Africa, Southern Africa, South Africa, Xhosa-style maker(s). Wood, copper, glass beads, sinew, leather, and thread; overall: 20.3 cm (8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 2010.199
collection
African Art
didYouKnow
The basic form of pipes like this one derives from examples made from clay, which the Dutch introduced at the end of the 1500s.
citations
citation
Pemberton, John, and Smith College Museum of Art. <em>African Beaded Art: Power and Adornment</em>. Northampton, MA, Smith College Museum of Art, 2008
page_number
cat. 114
creditline
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 08:39:39.241000
sourceId
168416
dept
African Art
coll
African Art
med
Wood, copper, glass beads, sinew, leather, and thread
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
dc8b5283351ba753