Aalten is the only place in the Netherlands where a horn industry was established. Here, products were made from buffalo horn, such as pipes, combs, buttons, signal whistles, needle cases, and knife handles. Buffalo were not killed or specifically bred for their horns. Virtually all of the material was used, and the remnants were spread over the fields. With the advent of plastics and mass production after the Second World War, this industry disappeared.
Horn turners
Family ties had a strong influence on the emergence of the horn industry. From 1855, five horn turners began in Aalten: Bernard Vaags, Gerrit Peters, Abraham ten Dam, Willem te Gussinklo, and Wessel Becking.
Bernard Vaags went on his Wanderschaft (journeyman travels) to Germany, where he apprenticed with a horn turner in Ruhla (Thuringia). Upon returning to Aalten, he bought a simple foot-operated lathe and started the very first horn-turning workshop. In a small upper room of his parents’ shoemaking shop ‘in den Dijk aan de beek te Aalten’ (Dijkstraat 9), he made parts for German buffalo horn pipes. In 1860, Vaags married Dora Willemina Prins. She also became a horn turner and was known as Piepen Deurken. They moved to the house next to Bernard’s parents’ home (Dijkstraat 7).
German pipes
Gerrit Peters, son of a tanner, also apprenticed in Thuringia after Bernard Vaags. From 1863, he worked on the Hogestraat. In 1866, Gerrit married the wealthy Josina Aleida te Gussinklo and moved into her home. The property covered the entire length of the Köstersbulte, from the living area on the Markt to the Landstraat, where he established his horn workshop. He produced long pipe stems and components for the German pipe. In Germany, porcelain pipe bowls were attached to the stems and the pipes were traded.
Combs
After Vaags’ death in 1868, his successor, Abraham ten Dam, tackled the business thoroughly. The cottage industry became a proper factory at de Stegge. In 1871, he and his brother-in-law, Bernard Manschot, founded the comb factory Ten Dam & Manschot on the Damstraat.
It was the first and only factory in the Netherlands to make combs: white, black, and naturally coloured decorative combs, Mexican combs, nit combs, and moustache combs. These were made from buffalo horn, imported from countries including Brazil, India, and Thailand (then known as Siam). The manufacturing process generated even more dust and stench than pipe making.
A revolutionary development in the production process was the switch to steam power, replacing traditional hand and foot power. In local parlance, it became known as ‘d’n Kamstoom’ (the Comb Steam). By 1920, the comb factory employed about 200 people, including women and children.
Handles and knife hilts
Willem te Gussinklo and Wessel Becking learned the tricks of the trade from Gerrit Peters. They worked together for a short time but separated in 1884. After the failed partnership, Wessel Becking continued in 1880 with Bernardus Gerhardus Vaags, a cousin and namesake of Bernard Vaags. Becking & Vaags made pipe stems and later also knife handles. When the sale of German pipes declined, the factory produced short briar pipes. The pipe factory in the Hoekstraat is still standing today!
Johannes Peters left his father’s workshop on the Köstersbult and, in 1896, formed a partnership with Marcus Gans, a Jewish merchant. Gans financed the firm called PEGA (Peters & Gans). The pipe factory stood next to Peters’ home on the then Gasthuisstraat (now Haartsestraat). In addition to German pipes for German reservists, walking sticks with horn handles were manufactured. After the factory burned down completely in 1917, Johannes Peters established his pipe factory on the Admiraal de Ruyterstraat. Instead of German pipes, they primarily produced briar pipes.
Buttons
After the failed partnership with Wessel Becking, Willem te Gussinklo made German pipes and handles for walking sticks and umbrellas. By 1900, companies in Germany and England had begun producing buttons from horn. With that example in mind, Willem started making horn buttons in 1905—a first for the Netherlands. Soon, his son Willem te Gussinklo Jr. (‘Piepkes Willem’) joined the firm, developing into an innovative entrepreneur.
Te Gussinklo’s first factory was at ‘t Dal in Aalten, the present-day Willemstraat. Due to the increasing demand for buttons, the company moved to the old Van Eijck weaving mill in Bredevoort in 1924. There, the production of buttons began. The international company N.V. Dutch Button Works (DBW) exported to England, Ireland, and America and was also the largest (horn) enterprise in Aalten.
After World War II, the production of horn buttons declined. In 1976, this last branch of horn processing was forced to close down. This marked the definitive end of 120 years of the horn industry in Aalten.
Video
It rained pipe stems
Paulien Andriessen, a great-granddaughter of Gerrit Peters, became curious about her great-grandfather’s craft. He was the second horn turner in Aalten. Where had he learned the trade, and to whom did he sell those pipe stems? How did the Aalten horn turners and their successors fare?
“When I passed my final exams, my uncle gave me a pipe as a gift. My mother and my sisters smoked pipes, so I didn’t find it strange at all. It was a ladies’ pipe with a slender stem, a small white porcelain bowl, and a horn mouthpiece. I had to smoke it a few times, my uncle explained, and then a beautiful picture would appear on the pipe bowl. So, I started smoking quite heavily, as I was curious about that picture. It took a few pipes, but to my delight, my smoking habit was rewarded. A picture appeared. It was a little bird, a dove.”
In 2011, a book she authored was published by Fagus Publishers, titled ‘Het regende pijpenstelen, Honderd jaar hoornindustrie in Aalten’ (It Rained Pipe Stems: One Hundred Years of the Horn Industry in Aalten) (ISBN: 9789078202806)
Sources
- Aaltense Musea
- Aaltensche Courant, 24 December 1937 (Delpher)
- Graafschapbode, 29 May 1931 (Delpher)
- Euregionetwerk Industriecultuur
