Stories

De Pijp is one of the most vibrant areas of Amsterdam and is named after the narrow, long and straight streets that run parallel to each other. Every morning when the locals are going into the city center through these narrow streets (pipes), it looks like a smoky cloud that explodes when they go into town.

Most of the streets in De Pijp have been named after Dutch painters. To us this seems obvious. Several painters have embraced pipe smoking in the history of art and they even displayed that on their canvasses. A good example is Vincent van Gogh.

Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30th 1853 in a little town called Groot-Zundert. He was an enthusiastic pipe smoker, as many of his self-portraits show. He passed away in the morning of July 29th 1890 and stories tell that he spent his last hours in bed smoking his pipe, while his brother Theo stayed close.

Probable, but not ensured, is that this world famous artist possessed a Gubbels pipe.