Decorative clay pipe bowls

Decorative clay pipe bowls

Clay pipe bowls, moulded as a tulip (left) and an acorn (right). Note the smaller acorn which forms the part of the bowl called the ‘spur’ or ‘stud’. This was partly decorative and partly for knocking loose the congealed burnt tobacco. Kaolin...
Herring basket clay pipe

Herring basket clay pipe

Clay pipe moulded in the shape of a wicker fishing basket with a herring swimming in through a hole at the base, where the bowl joins the stem.
Clay tobacco pipes

Clay tobacco pipes

Two clay tobacco pipe, one embossed with buffalo horns and RAOB (Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes), the other with leaf decoration up the seam and a heart, wreathed, beneath the sun, on one side, and a hand, wreathed, beneath the sun, on the other. The first pipe...
Clay tobacco pipes

Clay tobacco pipes

Two clay tobacco pipes, possibly made by a Yarmouth pipemaker. One is decorated with fish scales going into a wicker basket. The other depicts fish or ripples swimming into a wicker basket (less crisply moulded). Designs of this sort may relate to the Yarmouth herring...
Buffalo clay pipe (side)

Buffalo clay pipe (side)

Buffalo clay pipe, with the acronym RAOB (Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes) and a buffalo’s face, with evidence, in the form of burn-marks, that the pipe has been smoked.
Buffalo clay pipe

Buffalo clay pipe

Clay pipe with the acronym RAOB (Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes) and a buffalo face embossed.
Ally Sloper Clay Pipe

Ally Sloper Clay Pipe

Ally Sloper was a popular Victorian cartoon character. Here his head adorns a clay pipe, with his nose serving as the spur. The pipe has been in a destructor.
Clay Pipes

Clay Pipes

Clay pipes: an animal (top); an Irish pipe with harp and shamrock on other side (middle), and the maker Parnell (bottom).
Prince of Wales Clay Pipe

Prince of Wales Clay Pipe

Kaolin pipe bowl showing Edward, crowned as Prince of Wales. The other side shows Princess Alexandra. The second bowl (right) bears the symbol of the Crossed Keys. Originally a papal emblem, it attached to many pubs, and this pipe may have been purchased at a pub of...
Dutch Clay Pipe

Dutch Clay Pipe

Made in Holland, smoked in London, dumped in Essex. Dutch clay pipes are distinctive because the bowl sits at about 45 degrees to the stem. This one is in the shape of a tulip – another Dutch import to Victorian London.
Burnt Clay Pipes

Burnt Clay Pipes

Clay pipes that have been through a London Destructor, dumped in Essex. In the intense heat they have fused with cinders and molten glass. Top left, bowl of grapes design. Centre and top right, a thorn design. Bottom centre, a coat of arms. Bottom left, a football...
Clay Pipes

Clay Pipes

Kaolin pipes, smoked in London and dumped in Essex. Top right, the ‘spur’ or ‘heel’ of the pipe is Ally Sloper, a Victorian cartoon character. Centre left: a basketwork design.
Clay Pipes

Clay Pipes

Pipes from late Victorian dumps in Essex, originally discarded in London. Top left: twisted stem, and an angler’s pipe, on which a pike lurking in the reeds swallows the stem. Then three pipes of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes (RAOB). Below,...