A Collection of old English clay pipes in a display frame
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A Collection of old English clay pipes in a display frame
seventeen hand-made decorative pipes, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th Century, each with either a decorated bowl, or maker's stamp to the stem, or both; the glazed collector's frame presenting most with a hand-written label: "squirrel", "Crossed keys", "Masonic" etc. and a brief synopsis of the history of the clay pipe,
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Dimensions: | 40cm (15¾") High, 64cm (25¼") Wide, 6cm (2¼") Deep |
Stock code: | 46826 |
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The pipes in this cabinet are collectable designs. Clay pipes were made to be ephemeral and consumable – they invariably broke and would be used in their shortened form until they were known as “nose-burners” and would be thrown away – which explains why the Thames foreshore in central London is littered with many thousands of clay pipes – the stem and the bowl – all broken and discarded to be found centuries later by Mudlarks between the tides. This collection has not originated from the Thames mud.
There are some examples here from the 18th Century, possibly earlier. There are numerous inventive designs: humorous portrait heads, bird-claw-feet, footballers – and there’s a huge example too. Both the maker’s themselves and the Inns and Tobacconists that supplied the pipes would adopt their own peculiar designs encouraging brand loyalty.