WWII Tobacco Pipe w/ Hitler, Stalin & Mussolini

[Veronica Parra]

See below.

 

[Veronica Parra]

This pipe was carved by its first owner, an Australian, at the beginning of World War II. I suppose you could categorize it as folk art. Three of its sides display (justly) grotesque caricatures of Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Josef Stalin.

I bought it on eBay from the carver's grandson, who didn't pick up on the identities of the faces: he simply described them as "demon masks".

To me, this homemade pipe conveys the horror of the era as starkly as any LIFE photo or propaganda poster.


STALIN:

HITLER:

MUSSOLINI:

 

[PADDY]

What a "smokin" find...!

Isn't it great Veronica when you see something that others don't! You certainly knew your stuff there and got justly rewarded for it. What a nice little find, and a piece of history to boot. I'm sure you are quite "chuffed" (as the Brits say) with getting that 'win' on Ebay. It's all still out there, sometimes you have to be patient and know what you are looking at. :cheers1: Well done!! it's just soooo unusual.

I wonder if others here have managed to clinch something so unusual, yet a reflection of the times?