Smoking & tobacco exhibition coming to Nové Zámky

An exhibition called 'The Story of the Pipe', which will deal with the history and development of smoking, tobacco and pipes from the Aztec era to the present, will be held from Friday, June 19 at the Jan Thain Museum in Nové Zámky (Nitra region), curator Eszter Kovácsová told TASR on Tuesday. Visitors will have the opportunity to set off on an adventure that will put them on the trail of tobacco cultivation in Europe, including in Slovakia. "People will learn where and when the first pipes appeared, how they were made and who used them, why the first pipes on the European continent were produced in England and the Netherlands, who Jean Nicot de Villemain was and what he had to do with tobacco, and also what Gouda, Broseley, Cologne and Banská Štiavnica (Banská Bystrica region) have in common", said Kovácsová. In addition to an extensive collection of clay pipes the exhibition will include pipes made from wood, china and other non-traditional materials such as glass and metal. The exhibition is being organised by the museum in cooperation with civil association Historic Pipes Club from Nitra, which lent the most valuable items from its collection. The exhibits will be complemented by the rarest pipes from the collections of the Jan Thain Museum in Nové Zámky and by porcelain pipes owned by private collector Zoltan Gal. The exhibition will be open until September 25.