The Bookworm's Table

Painting by Claude Raguet Hirst (1855-1942).  Painted 1890s.  Click to enlarge.

"True Temperance"

From Puck magazine, 1888.

via the Appendix

Ghostly Gourds by Normal Rockwell

Pipe, not pipe...wait a minute--pipe!

The Chokwe peoples occupy the broad expanse of open savanna in present-day Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Chokwe chiefs became increasingly involved in trade with Europeans who sought rubber, wax, and ivory as well as African slaves for their colonies in the New World. Slaves were often exchanged for firearms, and these were employed in raids on neighboring peoples that produced more captives to sell to European traders. Local leaders who prospered from this exchange frequently commissioned prestige items from local artisans to indicate their wealth and power. This tobacco pipe is one such item that demonstrates the degree to which warfare, the slave trade, and elite arts were intertwined at this time. The pipe itself was the prerogative of individuals who could afford expensive imported tobacco, generally by trading slaves, while the rifle refers to the means by which such slaves were acquired.

 From the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.  Click to read full article.

English and Scotch Soldiers

click to enlarge

English and Scotch Soldiers/Soldats Anglais et Escosais.
Private Men of the 95th Rifles, 71st Highlanders, and a corporal of the 42nd Highlanders, c. 1815. Artist Unknown.

via the Ear-Trumpet

Pipe-smoking sculpture

all photos click to enlarge

Some photos of a sculpture of a pipe-smoking man playing fetch with his dogs.  At an animal hospital in Broomfield, Colorado.  Sent to me by a reader.  Thanks, Ken!

"The Zaporozhian Cossacks write a letter to the Sultan of Turkey"

"The Zaporozhian Cossacks write a letter to the Sultan of Turkey" by Ilya Repin (1844-1930).

Wikipedia link.

Click to enlarge and see how many pipes you can spot.

Thanks to Books and Art and My Ear-Trumpet.

Wilhelm Bendz: A Smoking Party

Here we get a glimpse into a home of the Copenhagen Golden Age, where the son of the house (the future Professor Christian Jürgensen) has invited his friends to an evening with tobacco pipes and conversation. Bendz was one of the Golden Age’s most ambitious painters, which is also apparent in this work’s complicated shadow effects. Unfortunately his career was cut short when Bendz died, only 28 years old, on the obligatory cultural tour to Italy.

Wilhelm Bendz: A Smoking Party

Jan Steen - "The World Turned Upside Down"

From 1663.

Thanks to Daily Window On a World of Wonder.

Pipe smoker quick fix: Gimli

Or at least a character who certainly appears to be Gimli, by artist Adrian Smith.

Christmas Homecoming by Normal Rockwell

Pipe Smoker: Robert Thegerström

Robert Thegerström was a Swedish artist who lived from 1857-1919.  Above is his "Self Portrait With Pipe" from 1874.  Below is a photo of him from 1907.

link:  Robert Thegerström at Nordic Thoughts

"Discarded Vices"

Still-life tintype, late 1800s.

"Ghostly Gourds" by Norman Rockwell

Future Dictates of Fashion

Future Dictates of Fashion, The Strand Magazine, 1893.  From The Retro Future Convention.

Giacomo Ceruiti: Portrait of a Smoking Man in Oriental Habit

By Giacomo Antonio Melchiorre Ceruti (1698-1767).

Wikipedia:   Giacomo Ceruti

Paja Jovanović - Albanian Resting

Link:  Paja Jovanović at Muddy Colors

Paja Jovanović - Two Guards in Front of a Gate

Link:  Paja Jovanović at Muddy Colors

Frederic McCubbin - "The Pioneers"

I first saw this as a very small, low res reproduction, but the position of his hand immediately made me think he was holding a pipe.  For a super-high-res version in which the pipe is clearly visible, go here.  Found at the old Ear-Trumpet.

Wikipedia:  Frederick McCubbin

Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier - "The Guide"

The Guide casually puffs a Tyrolean.  Found at My Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck By Lightning.

Wikipedia:  Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier