“To-morrow the grim battle smoke will curl;
To-day, in spite of it, we’ll feast, my girl!
While waiting glory, pleasure we will take,
Nor care the future’s gloomy seal to break!
Come-guard my tinder-box and take my pipe,
And, if my evil hour at last be ripe,
It will be something, love, that you alone
In all the regiment call that pipe your own.”
– from The Secret Memoires of Madame la Marquise de Pompadour
An Odalisque of Madame de Pompadour Playing a Stringed Instrument. Carle Van Loo
A royal pipe collection
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson did not start her life in the royal court but she would find herself there in the end…
Educated in her early life, she made her debut to the world at The “Yew-tree Ball” a masquerade wedding party in 1745.
Charles-Nicolas Cochin immortalizes the encounter between King Louis XV , concealed under a yew, and Madame d’Etiolles in Diana the huntress, during the famous masked ball, 1745
Louis XV, the king of France was looking for a new mistress, which was widely known at the time. The Yew-tree Ball would make a great opportunity for Louis XV to go unrecognized and observe the women at the party.
Louis XV dressed as a tree to fit in unnoticed, when he spotted his choice, 23 year old Jeanne dressed as a shepherdess… The two are said to have disappeared from the party together moments latter and her carriage was seen parked outside his house the next morning…
The two never separated in life again even after he chose a new mistress later on. He soon gave her the title “Madame de Pompadour” with estate as his chief mistress.
Amedee Van Loo, Le Dejeuner de la Sultane (Sultana’s Luncheon), 1783
“Après nous, le déluge.”
(After us, the deluge.)
– Madame de Pompadour
Socializing with the likes of the greatest poets, writers and painters of the time Madame de Pompadour found herself friends with thinkers like Voltaire.
She had many passions in life, one was the love of smoking the pipe…
Carle Van Loo, Sultane (Mme de Pompadour portrayed as a Turkish lady), 1747
(Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris)
Not only a connoisseur but a collector of the pipe. Her collection ever growing was said to number more then 300 pieces at the time of her death.
Madame de Pompadour with one of her 300 plus pipes
Sometimes the interesting story is not what’s in the pipe but the pipes themselves…
Kahve Keyfi (Enjoying Coffee), First half of 18th century