Zenith

Zenith is a brand producing pipes from cast ceramic in the Dutch city of Gouda. The business behind the name was born in 18th-century Gouda, where clay-pipe making supported an entire city, and continued its production into the early 20th century by switching from hand-pressing to plaster molds. The detail that makes the brand recognized beyond the world of briar is its double-walled construction, which leaves a gap between the inner bowl and the outer body.

From Guild to Family Business

According to records, the business begins on 17 March 1749, when Pieter Dirksz van der Want (1716-1774) received his master's certificate from the Gouda pipe makers' guild; the same records report that the trade was passed from father to son across eight generations. The firm was long known under the name P.J. van der Want Azn. The Zenith name came into use during the years of the First World War; the year it was adopted varies in sources between 1915 and the war's end. In the second half of the twentieth century the business was headed by Otto Adrianus van der Want (1926-2016) and his son Aart. Dutch collector sources have counted Zenith the oldest continuously operating pipe factory since the 1950s, placing 1780-founded Chacom second in this ranking; this claim has no independent confirmation.

Plaster Molds and the Double Wall

For over a century and a half the factory made traditional clay pipes, produced by pressing hard clay in metal molds. The method changed at the start of the twentieth century: liquid clay began to be cast in plaster molds, and after firing the bowl began to be coated with a transparent glaze. The glaze both left the surface smooth and glossy and gave the bowl some protection against breakage.

The double-walled bowl construction introduced in the 1920s became the brand's most talked-about detail. Smoke circulates in the gap between the glazed outer body and the inner bowl, and the porous ceramic retains part of the moisture along the way. That the ceramic does not add its own taste to the tobacco is also a frequently cited property of this material; related discussions are covered in detail in the Porcelain Pipe entry.

Model Families

The following series details rest largely on Dutch dealer and museum sources; they have not been cross-checked against independent records.

• Gouda Classic: The line closest to classic pipe shapes. Straight and bent billiard, Dublin, and bent London bowls are finished with a gilded metal band.

• Black Magic: Models with plump bowls, carrying city names such as Bombay and Karachi. Alongside the round bowl there is also an eight-sided "facet" version; it has been made in white and blue in addition to black.

• Old Mokum: A line beginning in the 1970s, drawn by designers such as Niels Keus and Dirk van der Want, that deliberately moves away from the briar shape idiom. It includes shapes named Amsterdam, Manhattan, London, and calabash; the mouthpiece seats into a black rubber stopper.

Alongside these series, standard models with a single-walled bowl, metal band, and black vulcanite mouthpiece were also produced for many years. On some of these, a hidden pattern beneath the surface emerges as the surface darkens with tobacco moisture; these models, known as "mystery pipes," drew interest in the 1920s.

Ornamental Ceramics and the Brand Today

In the twentieth century the business also produced Gouda ornamental ceramics (plateel) alongside pipes; after art nouveau and art deco pieces, Delft-blue-style products came to the fore after the Second World War. Dutch-language sources write that Zenith closed in 1984, marking the end of Gouda's last major ceramics business, while sources from the pipe community report that ceramic pipe production continued after that date. The gap between the two accounts is unresolved. The brand's association with De Porceleyne Fles (Royal Delft) in Delft is likewise unconfirmed: the source making this connection also notes that Royal Delft's own publications show no trace of Zenith.