Pipe [MPS-1687, Tower Pipe Exhibition]
A compound pipe head, likely made of Caucasian walnut, made in the second half of the 19th century in Russia – the Pre-Caucasus. The fitting is likely made in Lviv. This exhibit comes from the museum’s earliest collections. The pipe head is shaped like a stylized head of a deer. Its head is topped with decoratively arranged horns. The eyes are wide open and inlaid with bone. The head is covered with a cap made of alpaca. The neck of the pipe is secured with a metal braid made of brass wire. This pipe has no similar objects in European collections, and no analogues have been found in literature. It is interesting not only for its form but also for the legend associated with it, which dates it back about a quarter of a millennium. “In her fireplace, a card from the donor was preserved with the text: A pipe from 1648, during the reign of King Władysław IV, made in Russia, found in the tent of the Cossack Bohdan Khmelnytsky.”