Pipes in a Jar: a Collection of old English clay pipes
Pipes in a Jar: a Collection of old English clay pipes
45 hand-made decorative pipes, 18th and 19th Century, each with either a decorated bowl, or maker's stamp to the stem, or both, mostly with broken stems; all in an early 20th Century glass Forsters Jar,
£110
In stock
Dimensions: | 22cm (8¾") High, 10cm (4") Wide, 10cm (4") Deep, the jar |
Stock code: | 47070 |
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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. 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. Both the maker’s themselves and the Inns and Tobacconists that supplied the pipes would adopt their own peculiar designs encouraging brand loyalty.