Shilluk tobacco pipe
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1938.28.6 .1 .2 .3
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan]
Cultural Group:
Shilluk
Date Made:
By 1938
Materials:
Pottery , Bamboo Plant , Gourd Plant , Animal Hide Skin , Plant Fibre , String , Pigment
Process:
Carved , Socketed , Perforated , Stitched , Twisted , Knotted Wound Tied Handbuilt Fire-Hardened Decorated Incised Inlaid Modelled Burnished
Dimensions:
Total L = 875, mouthpiece L = 195, max diam = 57.8, neck diam = 27.7, top opening = 5 mm; diam shaft = 29.2; W loop strands = 2 mm, base sheath L = 77.8, pipe bowl L = 278, W = 132, head W = 67, mouth opening = 22 by 36 mm [RTS 17/1/2005].
Weight:
835.7 g
Local Name:
?dak
Other Owners:
Stevens Auction Rooms sale 1 February 1938 (lot 190).
PRM Source:
Stevens Auction Rooms
Acquired:
Purchased 1st February 1938
Collected Date:
By 1938
Description:
Composite tobacco pipe consisting of a gourd and hide mouthpiece [.3] on a wooden shaft [.2] with pottery pipe bowl and hide sheath [.1].
The mouthpiece is currently detachable, and consists of 2 parts fitted closely together.
The inner section is made from an elongated orangey brown gourd (Pantone 730C), with slight neck on a narrow pear-shaped body of which the upper part only is visible.
A hole has been burnt through the top to create a narrow mouth, and also through the centre of the underside to create an opening through which a wad of fibre has been inserted as a filter.
The mouthpiece carries a faint scent of tobacco.
This part fits into an outer casing made from a section of brown animal hide tail (Pantone 462C) with traces of buff hair on the surface.
This was stretched when wet to cover the base of the gourd, and its lower part shrunken to form a cylindrical socket that fits over the top of the stem.
The stem itself is cut from a length of yellowish bamboo (Pantone 7509C) with a segmented, round sectioned body that has been hollowed out inside.
Some shallow cuts have been made near the exposed upper and lower parts of this shaft, but their function is unknown.
At its lower end the shaft has been fitted with a cylindrical sheath, made from a rectangular strip of brown animal hide (Pantone 462C), also with traces of buff hair, fastened down one side with a row of tight stitching that forms a raised seam, using a narrow piece of plant fibre or bast that is a similar colour to the sheath. There is a short loop of twisted fibre at the top, to which 5 cords made of twisted fibre yarn are attached; these are a light grayish cream colour (Pantone 7507C). These extend upwards as a short carrying loop, fixed at their upper ends by being wrapped several times around the pipe shaft and tucked underneath themselves, leaving their knotted ends hanging loose. The hide sheath that fixes their lower end covers the junction of pipe shaft and bowl, with the latter fitting inside the sheath to rest against the base of the bamboo stem.
The pipe bowl has been hand made from a moderately well levigated clay, slipped and fired a dark brownish black colour (Pantone black 7C). This has a cylindrical stem at the top, that joins onto a zoomorphic body, modelled in the shape of a hyena, except ending with a convex sided, flat based knob instead of feet; this serves as the pipe rest. The hyena has a rounded heat with 2 triangular ears, with depressions at the centre of their bases, and a flat raised crest that runs from the base of the neck up to near the top of the head. 2 circular eyes have been cut into the face, and a small triangular snout modelled with small perforations marking the nostrils, above a broad oval mouth. This sits on a well defined neck, with the body swelling out below. The surface has been decorated with a series of incised and impressed lines, filled with a chalky white pigment, arranged in numerous bands that alternate with plain, but highly burnished sections. The crest, ears, eye rims, nose and mouth edge have been left undecorated, while the rest of the head is covered with fine crosshatching. There is similar crosshatching in horizontal bands around the top, and centre of the stem of the bowl, and covering the knob base. The body between is more formally divided up by a series of narrow impressed checkerboard bands. These consist of a vertical band down the back, and 2 curving bands on either side that rise up to the back of the crest, and similar parallel bands running down the chest. The back section is filled by 4 horizontal bands crossing the central line, and the flanks of the hyena with 5 oblique parallel bands, with the hole framed by 2 horizontal bands of this type below.
Apart from a small bit of wear on the base of the pipe rest, this object is in very good condition. It has a weight of 835.7 grams, and is 875 mm long. The mouthpiece is 195 mm long, has a maximum diameter of 57.8 mm and a neck diameter of 27.7 mm, while its top opening measures 5 mm across. The pipe shaft has a diameter of 29.2 mm, and the individual strands of the carrying loop are 2 mm wide. The hide sheath at the base of the stem is 77.8 mm long; the pipe bowl measures 278 mm in length from the top of the bowl stem to the pipe rest, and 132 mm across from the back to the animal's snout. The head has a width of 67 mm, and the mouth opening measures 36 by 22 mm across.
Purchased at a sale at Stevens Auction Rooms on 1 February 1938 (lot 190). It is said to come from the Upper Nile.
Shilluk commoners call the tobacco pipe dak , while its royal name is labo, meaning earth or mud. Tobacco is called athabo, or omaro by royalty, signifying its colour. The Shilluk use 2 types of dak – the dangduong and the dangthen. The former is kept within the family enclosure; the latter is more commonly used in public. The two types are not structurally different. They are made up of a pipe bowl (the base is known as tyel dak) , attached to a hollow stem ( obec dak – usually made from a plant known as obec ) with a skin sheath ( apyeth dak ), and at the top, the mouthpiece is made of skin, usually cow's tail ( apyeth agwayo ), fitted around a gourd plant ( agwayo ). A filtering material ( anywön ) is put into the latter through a hole in its base; this is made from a plant known as thitho, treated in a special way that makes the fibres very soft. This is changed when it becomes thick and bitter with nicotine. A wire instrument called a godi is used to remove bad anywön . When a new filter has been put into a pipe, it is often smoked by a number of people in an event known as Käki 'dak , where the beauty of a pipe can be shown off. The pipe in question is often decorated with beads and cuttings from the tails of newly born sheep for the occasion. Many pipes decorated with lion or human heads and other designs were produced by a Shilluk school teacher and sculptor called Mariano Gwado Ayoker during the early 1930's; he sold many of these and his wooden sculptures to the the Verona Fathers, and later the Mill Hill Fathers in Tonga and Malakal; he died in 1975. One of his lion pipes is currently in the British Museum (Kunijwok Gwado Ayoker of Wolfson College, Oxford, circa 1980's, from an unpublished paper titled "Reflections on Cultural Artifacts and History: the Case of a Shilluk Pipe", pp 2-5, 11-13, figs 1, 3).
Rachael Sparks 30/9/2005.
At its lower end the shaft has been fitted with a cylindrical sheath, made from a rectangular strip of brown animal hide (Pantone 462C), also with traces of buff hair, fastened down one side with a row of tight stitching that forms a raised seam, using a narrow piece of plant fibre or bast that is a similar colour to the sheath. There is a short loop of twisted fibre at the top, to which 5 cords made of twisted fibre yarn are attached; these are a light grayish cream colour (Pantone 7507C). These extend upwards as a short carrying loop, fixed at their upper ends by being wrapped several times around the pipe shaft and tucked underneath themselves, leaving their knotted ends hanging loose. The hide sheath that fixes their lower end covers the junction of pipe shaft and bowl, with the latter fitting inside the sheath to rest against the base of the bamboo stem.
The pipe bowl has been hand made from a moderately well levigated clay, slipped and fired a dark brownish black colour (Pantone black 7C). This has a cylindrical stem at the top, that joins onto a zoomorphic body, modelled in the shape of a hyena, except ending with a convex sided, flat based knob instead of feet; this serves as the pipe rest. The hyena has a rounded heat with 2 triangular ears, with depressions at the centre of their bases, and a flat raised crest that runs from the base of the neck up to near the top of the head. 2 circular eyes have been cut into the face, and a small triangular snout modelled with small perforations marking the nostrils, above a broad oval mouth. This sits on a well defined neck, with the body swelling out below. The surface has been decorated with a series of incised and impressed lines, filled with a chalky white pigment, arranged in numerous bands that alternate with plain, but highly burnished sections. The crest, ears, eye rims, nose and mouth edge have been left undecorated, while the rest of the head is covered with fine crosshatching. There is similar crosshatching in horizontal bands around the top, and centre of the stem of the bowl, and covering the knob base. The body between is more formally divided up by a series of narrow impressed checkerboard bands. These consist of a vertical band down the back, and 2 curving bands on either side that rise up to the back of the crest, and similar parallel bands running down the chest. The back section is filled by 4 horizontal bands crossing the central line, and the flanks of the hyena with 5 oblique parallel bands, with the hole framed by 2 horizontal bands of this type below.
Apart from a small bit of wear on the base of the pipe rest, this object is in very good condition. It has a weight of 835.7 grams, and is 875 mm long. The mouthpiece is 195 mm long, has a maximum diameter of 57.8 mm and a neck diameter of 27.7 mm, while its top opening measures 5 mm across. The pipe shaft has a diameter of 29.2 mm, and the individual strands of the carrying loop are 2 mm wide. The hide sheath at the base of the stem is 77.8 mm long; the pipe bowl measures 278 mm in length from the top of the bowl stem to the pipe rest, and 132 mm across from the back to the animal's snout. The head has a width of 67 mm, and the mouth opening measures 36 by 22 mm across.
Purchased at a sale at Stevens Auction Rooms on 1 February 1938 (lot 190). It is said to come from the Upper Nile.
Shilluk commoners call the tobacco pipe dak , while its royal name is labo, meaning earth or mud. Tobacco is called athabo, or omaro by royalty, signifying its colour. The Shilluk use 2 types of dak – the dangduong and the dangthen. The former is kept within the family enclosure; the latter is more commonly used in public. The two types are not structurally different. They are made up of a pipe bowl (the base is known as tyel dak) , attached to a hollow stem ( obec dak – usually made from a plant known as obec ) with a skin sheath ( apyeth dak ), and at the top, the mouthpiece is made of skin, usually cow's tail ( apyeth agwayo ), fitted around a gourd plant ( agwayo ). A filtering material ( anywön ) is put into the latter through a hole in its base; this is made from a plant known as thitho, treated in a special way that makes the fibres very soft. This is changed when it becomes thick and bitter with nicotine. A wire instrument called a godi is used to remove bad anywön . When a new filter has been put into a pipe, it is often smoked by a number of people in an event known as Käki 'dak , where the beauty of a pipe can be shown off. The pipe in question is often decorated with beads and cuttings from the tails of newly born sheep for the occasion. Many pipes decorated with lion or human heads and other designs were produced by a Shilluk school teacher and sculptor called Mariano Gwado Ayoker during the early 1930's; he sold many of these and his wooden sculptures to the the Verona Fathers, and later the Mill Hill Fathers in Tonga and Malakal; he died in 1975. One of his lion pipes is currently in the British Museum (Kunijwok Gwado Ayoker of Wolfson College, Oxford, circa 1980's, from an unpublished paper titled "Reflections on Cultural Artifacts and History: the Case of a Shilluk Pipe", pp 2-5, 11-13, figs 1, 3).
Rachael Sparks 30/9/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[p.
32] - 1938 [...] 27
STEVENS'S AUCTION ROOMS
.
[p.
34] - 1 Feb.
(Lot 190) - Large tobacco pipe, with very large black pottery bowl, carved into the form of a
lion's (?)
hyena's head & engraved.
Long reed stem with hide-mounted gourd mouthpiece.
UPPER WHITE NILE, SHILLUK.
12/- [p.
36, total for items 1938.28.1-7] P[ai]d by cheque 3.2.1938 £2-9-6.
Added Accession Book Entry [p. 33, opposite entry for 1938.28.6] - Identification by Mr A Blackman by comparison with specimens seen in Museum in Khartoum.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [RTS 23/7/2004].
Detailed Pipes [Unsorted] Card Catalogue entry - Description: Large tobacco pipe. Large bowl of pottery, black in colour with whitened cross hatching [insert] Bands of 'check' design criss cross the bowl, the cat's head and neck are cross-hatched, the knob is cross hatched and there are cross hatched bands on the stem piece, the incised lines and impressions are whitened. [end insert] modelled in the form of the head and neck of a cat-like animal with an upright ridge or crest running along the back of the neck, in the front of the bowl is modelled a cross hatched projecting knob. At the junction of stem piece and stem there is a binding of hide and just above, bound to the stem, a short 5-stringed loop. The stem is long, straight, and of stout bamboo, and ends in a large mouthpiece made of a gourd held to the stem by a length of skin (?section of a tail skin) shrunk on Total length c 87 cm Length of bowl part (junction of stem and bowl as discernable through hide band) c 26.5 cm of hide and gourd mouthpiece c 19.5 cm Bowl knob to top of cat's crest c 19.5 cm Locality: Upper White Nile How Acquired: Purch 1.2.1938 (Stevens) [Drawing].
Pre-PRM label - SHILLUK [front] Lot 190 [on pasted on paper, overprinted on number 15414; back of brown luggage tag; stored in RDF file, RTS 17/12/2004].
Written on object - Tobacco-pipe, UPPER WHITE NILE. Pur. 1.2.1938 (Stevens) [RTS 17/12/2004].
Added Accession Book Entry [p. 33, opposite entry for 1938.28.6] - Identification by Mr A Blackman by comparison with specimens seen in Museum in Khartoum.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [RTS 23/7/2004].
Detailed Pipes [Unsorted] Card Catalogue entry - Description: Large tobacco pipe. Large bowl of pottery, black in colour with whitened cross hatching [insert] Bands of 'check' design criss cross the bowl, the cat's head and neck are cross-hatched, the knob is cross hatched and there are cross hatched bands on the stem piece, the incised lines and impressions are whitened. [end insert] modelled in the form of the head and neck of a cat-like animal with an upright ridge or crest running along the back of the neck, in the front of the bowl is modelled a cross hatched projecting knob. At the junction of stem piece and stem there is a binding of hide and just above, bound to the stem, a short 5-stringed loop. The stem is long, straight, and of stout bamboo, and ends in a large mouthpiece made of a gourd held to the stem by a length of skin (?section of a tail skin) shrunk on Total length c 87 cm Length of bowl part (junction of stem and bowl as discernable through hide band) c 26.5 cm of hide and gourd mouthpiece c 19.5 cm Bowl knob to top of cat's crest c 19.5 cm Locality: Upper White Nile How Acquired: Purch 1.2.1938 (Stevens) [Drawing].
Pre-PRM label - SHILLUK [front] Lot 190 [on pasted on paper, overprinted on number 15414; back of brown luggage tag; stored in RDF file, RTS 17/12/2004].
Written on object - Tobacco-pipe, UPPER WHITE NILE. Pur. 1.2.1938 (Stevens) [RTS 17/12/2004].
