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Pipe Bowl

Unrecorded Muscogee (Creek) (?) Artist Native American

ca. 1780

Not on view

This pipe bowl is in the form of a crouching male clasping his hands against his chest. The figure tilts his head back and is adorned only by a metal gorget, a crescent-shaped element derived from European armor that here represents a diplomatic gift. A stem would have been inserted into the figure’s rear in order to smoke tobacco during political or ceremonial gatherings. New research on the similarity of the figure’s posture to archaeological examples and on the gorget detail has recently reattributed the figure to an unknown artist from the Southeast.

Pipe Bowl, Unrecorded Muscogee (Creek) (?) Artist (Native American), Wood, metal, Muscogee (Creek) (?) — This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Title: Pipe Bowl

Artist: Unrecorded Muscogee (Creek) (?) Artist (Native American)

Date: ca. 1780

Geography: United States, Georgia or Alabama

Culture: Muscogee (Creek) (?)

Medium: Wood, metal

Dimensions: H. 3 1/2 × W. 6 × D. 2 in. (8.9 × 15.2 × 5.1 cm)

Classification: Wood-Implements

Credit Line: Collection of Charles and Valerie Diker (531)

Rights and Reproduction: Image © Charles and Valerie Diker Collection/Photo: Dirk Bakker

The Met

The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at The Met

The Met's collection of art of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and North, Central, and South America comprises more than eleven thousand works of art of varied materials and types, representing diverse cultural traditions from as early as 3000 B.C.E. to the present.