This pipe is moulded in two longitudinal halves to which a stem was then added. Floral motifs decorate the length of the pipe. It was common to add silver attachments to porcelain. The silver band on this pipe probably disguises an old break and was probably applied after export to the West.Tobacco was smoked in both dry and water pipes. It was introduced to China from the New World by Western merchants. By the 19th century, tobacco was cultivated in China although these pipes were probably made at least a century earlier. The origins of these pipes remain unclear.Dehua, located on the southeast coast of Fujian province, is well known for its production of white porcelain, known to Europeans as 'blanc de Chine'. The earliest Dehua porcelain was produced as early as the 14th century but the production and quality of these porcelain peaked around the 17th and 18th centuries.
