Four objects that became political: the pipe, the R25, the chainsaw and the cream pie

THE MORNING LIST

Thanks to its head-shaped bowl, the pipe, a large, short-stemmed pipe, was also used in the 19th century to caricature a personality, notably the last king of France, Louis-Philippe I. In the 1980s, François Mitterrand's choice of high-end Renault cars became the symbol of the bourgeoisification of the socialist power. The chainsaw, after long haunting horror films, has much more recently burst onto the ultra-liberal scene to illustrate, with great fanfare, the radical pretensions of Javier Milei and Elon Musk. Finally, pie-throwing, made famous by the Belgian Noël Godin, aims to publicly ridicule personalities deemed too arrogant by crushing whipped cream on their faces.

This is indeed a pipe, but its carved bowl imitates a sort of head. A rather unattractive head, with a widely flared base, forming jowls, but pointed at the top above furrowed eyebrows. This puffy, pear-shaped face is that of Louis-Philippe ^I , brought to the throne in 1830 by the July Revolution, before being driven from power in 1848. Which makes this very ordinary pipe a smoking manifesto against the July Monarchy, that of the last king that France knew.

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