Pipe Dreams

Old chimney pots in a museum? Why not. Once they dominated the Auckland skyline or kept underground systems flowing, if you know what we mean. They are the products of the city’s once thriving brick and tile industry, much of it located in the west. And it was a famous “Westie” named Jack Diamond who collected these pieces of living history and eventually gifted them to the museum. Trouble was, they didn’t quite fit in with the commercial ceramics collection, and they didn’t really fit anywhere else. So they ended up stored in the basement, then they were moved to another storage site, almost forgotten remnants of the old city’s beating heart.