5 hand-made clay pipes, 18th Century pattern, with an acorn shaped bowl and long curvilinear stem and waxed mouth piece

Clay pipes were made to be ephemeral and consumable: millions were made. 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 –  to be found centuries later by Mudlarks between the tides. The longest pipes, giving a cool smoke, were prestige – but being fragile are rare survivors.