THE BERGERAC TOBACCO MUSEUM OF NATIONAL INTEREST

The Tobacco Museum of National Interest was founded in 1950 by the Management of French Museums. Since 1982, it has been reorganized according to new museum norms and housed in the beautiful building " La Maison Peyrarède " which was renovated by the town of BERGERAC. The 17th century mansion with its main façade on " rue de l’Ancien Pont ", is a fine example of Renaissance anal Classical architecture and one of the prized jewels of Bergerac’s heritage. The new museum was opened in January 1983 and thanks to an entirely different type of policy offers photo and restoration laboraties and an administration office, it is also equipped with computers. The Museum has already organized its own theme exhibitions :
 " Charles Harnisch, pipe maker (1845-1895) " in 1985
 " Bergerac, the tobacco capital " in 1986
 " Anthropology of tobacco : problems " in 1987... Other exhibitions are to follow as the museum will research the multiple subjects tobacco anthropology offers.

This cultural history is developped in four permanent exhibitions rooms.

ROOM 1

The first room which contains many things, photographs, pipes, peace pipes...is devoted to use and functions of tobacco in pre-colombian AMERICA : one must remember that tobacco, present in the natural environement, became an eminently cultural plant for Amerindian cilivilizations. For example, tobacco was used during initiation rites or by chamans as a medecine. It is also present in all the mythologies and cosmogonies of these people. In the same room, we discover now tobaccospread to AFRICA by means of the slave trade at the end of the 16th century. Indeed smoking was quickly adopted by Africains who produced an astonishing variety of objects reflecting the diversity of their ethnic group. After Africa, this plant travelled to Europe and other continents.

ROOM 2

After the arrival of tobacco in EUROPE around 1650, its status took some time to change : the once sacred plant became medicinal and then an object of simple diversion.

Snuff was the first manner of consumption, most widely spread in France up till the French Revolution : on display in the first three cases are earthenware tobacco jars from DELFT or from SINCENY, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, often indicating the provenance or destination (tobacco from Holland, women tobacco...) ; rasps en ivory, carved wood, iron, enamelled metal of 17th and 18th century, boxes from Holland of 17th and 18th century which are the ancestors of snuff-boxes and finally the snuff-boxes themselves reflecting the social origin or political opinions of their owners. These snuff-boxes range from the crude ones of Brittany, the engraved home made by a peasant in Franche-Comté to the semi-precious snuff-box belonging to a Parisian aristocrat. They all reflect the ingenuity of the craftsmen.

In the fourth case, we can see cly pipes which were mainly used by the working class in France. These clay pipes were widely spread during the 19th century and highly successfully manufactured by GAMBIER and SCOUFLAIRE. Their catalogue suggests a whole number of political, literary or artistic " pipe bowls ".

The next case develops the short lived splendid craft of China pipes. Finally with the arrival of the cigar and the cigarette and the coming of mass consumption, the smoker’s tools multiply : lighters, instruments for stopping and removing tobacco, cigar-holders, fidibus-hoders, etc. which are of course the joy of the collector and make up the last display case.

ROOM 3

The explosion in the consumption of tobacco during the 19th century favoured the craftsmen’s imagination fort they used many different materials such as meerschaum, glass, ear of maïs, stag tine, etc... to make numerous cigar-holders, cigarette-holders or tobacco jars : these are on display in the two cases of the third room on the second floor along with the prize piece of the museum : a meerschaum and amber cigar-holder made by a Viennese carver in the 19 th century , representing a Sicilian wedding. The piece was purchased by the town of BERGERAC in 1985.

At the same time, we can admire paintings by MEISSONNIER, TENIERS, CHARLOT, COCHET, etc..., illustrating the evolution of tobacco through the centuries.

ROOM 4

The last room presents the manufacturing techniques of smoking objects in history and throughout the world. In Europe, in particular, the different crafts linked to the smoker’s objects are studied.

The actual craft of pipe making developped in the middle of the 19th century. This craft is illustrated with examples dating from the 19th and 20th centuries.

In this final section, the object is studied for itself by testings of typological reconstitution using different European creft workshops. A first example of this type of work was shown in the museum after the purchase of the HARNISCH Workshop Collection. Charles HARNISCH was a pipe maker in COLMAR at the end of the 19th century. An extremely interesting model he made himself in 1885, shows HARNISCH at his craft with his workmen. A second example carried out by the museum in 1988 was the restoration of pipe bowl carving machine. This is an exceptional piece being extremely rare (only two in the world), it has never been copied and was the work of the San Claudien inventor - Joseph DALLOZ (1832-1905).

The machine presents several points of interest :

 1 - historical and ethnographical : this machine indeed marks an important date in the history of SAINT-CLAUDE and its craft. All San Claudien pipe makers remember it well. There, it is commonly known as the DESSERTINE machine after Joseph DALLOZ’ nephew who used in the longest.

 2 - technological : in the history of techniques, the system founded on the principal of pantographe was never marketed. It is therefore an example of an attempt of industrialization which was never followed up.

The San Claudiens considered that there was not a sufficient market for industrially carved pipe bowls.