Side view (left) | Photographer: Christin Griesheim | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Around 1900, kings, dignitaries and heads of families in the grasslands of Cameroon liked to smoke tobacco. The higher the rank of the smoker, the more splendid the pipe had to be. This tobacco pipe is made of cast brass. It was made by artists in the kingdom of Bamum in the early years of the 20th century. The bowl depicts the head of a European wearing a cap. Many tobacco pipe bowls from the Cameroon grasslands have the shape of human heads made of clay or brass. Presumably, smoking from the head of a human being, especially from the head of a depicted ruler or dignitary, was a sign of power and strength. Here, however, the head depicted is not that of a local ruler but of a European. The artist was presumably trying to symbolically suggest that the smoker could also have power over the Europeans. It is not clear whether the Preife was ever smoked. Around 1908, the ethnologist Bernhard Ankermann (*1869 - †1943) commissioned dozens of tobacco pipes from local artists during a research trip to Cameroon. He bought other pipes in local markets. They were unused when the then Royal Museum of Ethnology acquired them. Main catalogue: "TAMTON tobacco pipe, brass bowl and pipe, mounted on a common short wooden pipe. Head in the shape of a European head with cap. A ring on the pipe instead of a hook." Index card "Similar in shape to European pipes. Pipe bowl: Portrait of a European with a twisted beard and shield cap. There are 2 brass balls at the bottom. Pipe and bowl connected by a piece of wood (not visible). A ring is moulded onto the pipe."
