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. 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.