Detail: Amsterdam Pipe Museum gets silver treasure.

It concerns a specific bequest of a private collection, assembled over more than forty years. The interest of the collector was metal smoking equipment. In addition to iron and bronze pipes, the deceased collector was able to find more than 150 silver specimens of smoking pipes. These are rare and precious pieces that are a unique addition to the collection of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum.

Collector Felix van Tienhoven was sent all over the world for his work at Netherlands' largest electronics company. Among other places, he lived in Brazil and Japan. Together with his wife he made marvelous journeys, preferably to exotic countries like Sudan, Tibet, the Philippines. Everywhere he bought local smoking equipment, tobacco pipes but also water pipes. Curator Don Duco of the Amsterdam Pipe Museum: " Van Tienhoven focussed on pipes made of unusual materials with a preference for metal. Especially in Asia there is a rich smoking culture, where the tobacco pipe as a personal item had a high status and corresponding value. We appreciate the importance of the collection in particular because Van Tienhoven neatly kept track of where he bought the pipes. This means that the origin is very well documented. "

The legacy was a complete surprise for the museum. Duco: "I sometimes spoke with Felix about the destination of his collection. Years ago he considered giving back objects to museums in countries where the pipes originally came from. I consider it a great honor that he finally decided to hold this unique collection together with our museum as the final destination. "Now the complete collection of more than 400 pieces is being added to the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. This Amsterdam museum is unique in its focus on smoking culture and is widely regarded as the most extraordinary pipe collection in the world.

A nice example of a 'tribal pipe' is the pipe from Tibet, the stem of which is made of a yak horn. This is provided with a silver fitting and finally embellished with colourful semi-precious stones. Van Tienhoven has bought several of these rare pipes on the spot. He traveled through these countries in the ’70s when there was no tourist yet and authentic objects were still available.

From 4 June to 25 August 2018, an overview of the Van Tienhoven bequest will be shown in the Amsterdam Pipe Museum. For the first time, parts of this private collection is shown in public. The museum is open Mon. until Sat. 12 AM till 6 PM.