Pipe-Bowl

Tobacco is an important crop in the Grassfields area of Cameroon. This pipe creatively incorporates an elephant into the design. The animal's head forms the pipe stem and the trunk and horns make a tripod upon which the pipe bowl rests.

In the Grassfields chiefdoms of Cameroon, the elephant is a royal symbol of might. The Fon (king), often addressed by the honorific title "elephant," is thought to have the ability to transform himself into an elephant and thereby possess the power of the animal. During the nineteenth century, Grassfields metal pipes were a royal prerogative, but by the early twentieth century, pipes and other cast-metal objects had also become exportable commodities.

This pipe was created through the lost wax casting process: first sculpted in wax, encased in clay, and then cast in metal.