Pipe

The pipe is a prestigious object, essentially masculine, that indicates the rank of its owner. They are remarkable for their beauty and careful elaboration the pipes bamun  (Cameroon), made of bronze by the procedure of lost wax or clay and bone. Sometimes they can reach important dimensions. Most of the time they don't smoke in it. The decoration of its bowls or tubes represents the fundamental concepts of the clan in symbolic language.

In any case these pipes rival the richness and variety of the motifs of their artistic decorations.

In most ethnic groups, the decoration of their bowls reproduces in symbolic language the fundamental concepts of the tribe. Both the size and decoration of the pipes obey a strict code depending on the social rank and wealth of the owner. In some places they are used as wedding gifts.

Most of the pipes, especially in the bamunThey were not normally meant to smoke in them but to serve as ornaments in ceremonies. It is not smoked in the western way, smoking has a rite value and it is thought that this smoke has a beneficial or purifying function, both for the fertility of the woman and for the fields.

The pipe represents the body of a woman whose breasts melt in the arms. Square bowl, brown patina.