Skip to content
Pitt Rivers Museum
AboutHire the MuseumNewsletterUniversity of Oxford

1967.50.17.6

Pipe with a glazed pottery bowl and a cylindrical wooden stem. Part of Afro-Brazilian shrine.

1967.50.17.6

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Terms and Conditions

If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.

Collection type
Object
Description
Pipe with a glazed pottery bowl and a cylindrical wooden stem. Part of Afro-Brazilian shrine.
Long description
Pipe with a glazed pottery bowl and a cylindrical wooden stem. Found wrapped within the cloth [1967.50.17.1] were three satin ribbons [.2 - .4], four pipes with glazed clay bowls and wooden stems [.5 - .8], and five pieces of twisted tobacco [.9 - .13]. From an Afro-Brazilian shrine, part of Umbanda tradition. Given as an offering to ancestral entities.
Person
Field collector Malcolm Bruce Corrie
PRM source J.R. Corrie
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1967
Date collected
By 1967
Acquisition information
Donated: 1967
Materials and processes
Material Pottery, Material Wood Plant, Process Carved, Process Hollowed, Process Moulded
Dimensions
Height: max 33 mm, Width: max 24 mm, Length: max 137 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1967.50.17.6
Research and responses

This pipe was studied during a research visit in July 2024 by Luisa Karman, a PhD candidate at SOAS, University of London, as part of her thesis entitled "Transatlantic Traces: Afro-Brazilian Objects in UK Museums". Luisa's research showed that the pipe is part of an assemblage (1967.50.1 – 1967.50.17.13) from an Afro-Brazilian shrine, collected by anthropologist Malcolm Bruce Corrie in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the 1960s, and donated to the PRM by his brother J.R. Corrie in 1967. Based on the components of the shrine which include material evidence of Caboclo and Preto Velho worship, it is Luisa's assertion that they belong to Umbanda, a branch of Afro-Brazilian religion. The presence of tobacco and pipes corroborates this theory, as these are offerings to these ancestral entities. Consultation with religious specialists and cross-referencing the objects with the field recordings held at the British Library (REF: C237) made by Malcolm Bruce Corrie in 1967 of sacred ceremonial music, including Candomblé de Angola and Umbanda, could provide more information. Please see RDF for full copy of research notes.

Associated publications
Reference: Finding the Forgotten: Locating Transatlantic Slavery in The Pitt Rivers Museum Collection, Main author: Jane Webster, 2025, Page: 126

Search terms: Textile, Religion, Narcotic, Pipe, Tobacco Narcotic, Tobacco Accessory, Religious Object, Ceremonial Object