558 - Ulm pipe (Ulmer Kloben), burl wood pipe with metal mounts, horn stem and chain, bowl 18th/19th c.

Ulm pipe (Ulmer Kloben), burl wood pipe with metal mounts, horn stem and chain, bowl 18th/19th c. Burl wood, metal and horn, Ulm burl wood pipe, so-called Ulmer Kloben, also Sackpfeife, bowl of burl wood with pronounced root grain, metal mounts with tall collar and volutes, domed lid of burl wood with metal bracket, front plate with volute and socket for the stem, base rail along the lower edge, bowl 18th/19th century, stem of horn, turned throughout, with fluted centre section, knop and curved mouthpiece with rings, added later, long silver-coloured chain, double-run. Good condition commensurate with age, lid worn inside. Bowl 14x13 cm (HxW), L. 51 cm. The Ulm burl wood pipe, called Ulmer Kloben after its bowl shape and also Sackpfeife, was made in Ulm and its surroundings from the burls of alder, birch, maple or ash. Pipe makers are mentioned in Geislingen as early as 1695; the introduction of the Kloben is attributed to Johann Jakob Glöckle around 1733, and between 1790 and 1840 the Ulm workshops of the Leibinger family supplied about half of the production. Characteristic of the Kloben is the laterally flattened, disc-like rounded bowl with an edge at the front and base, the bowl and neck being of about the same height; in the 18th century the lids were of wood, later of metal. The mounts were at first of brass, later of tombac and in the luxury version of silver; stems of buffalo horn and double-run chains were part of the usual equipment of such a tobacco pipe. From 1840 porcelain pipes displaced the wooden pipe, the Ulm pipe-making trade declined until after the First World War, and the last maker worked until around 1942.