a trade pipe ???

[offcoursetoo]

I found this part of a pipe in the very north of Mississippi . It is missing the part that holds the stem. the rest of it is in good shape.

 

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[trk5capt]

Looks To Be A Clay Pipe Mid 1700's- Mid 1800's, Have Seen Some From Both REV War & CW Sites. trk5capt...

 

[Gypsy Heart]

The captain nailed it....you are right...used for trade. Nice find !

 

[Noodle]

Is it really made of clay? Looks kinda shiny to me ... like it may have a finish on it. Ceramic or porcelain, maybe?

- Noodle

 

[Cannonman17]

It's a high quality clay called Kaolin. You can date these too if you get a piece of the stem, I don't think your fragment has enough of the stem. They can be dated by the diameter of the stem hole. For whatever reason the diameters changed over time and now with a wire gauge set and the appropriate reference one can date these, often quite accurately.

 

[diggummup]

Very nice.Looks like Rev.War period pipe.Back in those days when a man could go into a tavern to buy a smoke, if he so chose to do so,the tavern keep would fill the bowl with tobacco and when finished, he would break off the tip of the stem.This would keep the pipe sanitary for the next smoker.The one pictured below is from the Cumberland Valley area and dates to that period.

 

[diggummup]

On second thought,yours doesn't look right.I agree with Noodle.It looks almost like it's carved ivory or bone. Any better pics.? A few diff. angles?

 

[Cannonman17]

I'm sure it's kaolin. I've never heard that bar keeps would snap the ends off for sanitary reasons (I didn't think too many people in the 18th century cared about sanitation) but I know that the ends were snapped off after use for a while simply because the tar residue or "tobacco juice" would eventually start seeping from the end when you inhaled leaving a god awful taste in ones mouth. Snapping off the end would temporarily improve the situation. There are three old farms in my area that I hunt for artifacts in, all three have been farmed since the mid 1800's and I find the little snapped off pieces of trade pipe stems all over these fields.

 

[diggummup]

I think i'll wait for the original poster to respond before being "sure" it's kaolin.I've pm'd him.As for ,"i've never heard rhat barkeeps snap off the ends for sanitary reasons",maybe you should contact someone from the Cumberland Valley Chapter 27 of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology,Inc..This is thier words,not mine.
http://www.greencastlemuseum.org/Archaeology/arcpage5.htm about halfway down.Have a good'un.

 

[Cannonman17]

I wasn't saying you were wrong!! I'm sure barkeeps could have done that - I was simply trying to convey the point that everybody broke them off. As for the Kaolin vs. carved ivory- I'll bet money on it right now.... People didn't carve ivory pipes like that- they mass produced mold made kaolin pipes like that.

 

[Michelle]

AWESOME

 

[offcoursetoo]

The pipe is not shiney as it appears in the picture, not sure why it came out that way. the pipe is a flat no gloss, it has a seam all the way thru the middle, it is small and fairly hard to see, but it is there. it also has some detailed leaves and would look engraved I suppose if it didn't look like it came from a mould. as I read and look at the other comments, I see that these pipes are fairly common, thanks for all the interest,
offcoursetoo

 

[diggummup]

After getting a pm reply from offcoursetoo,I now agree with my original statement as to being made of kaolin clay.He says there is a small seem hardly visible to the eye which proves it was a moulded piece.Good day.

 

[jeremiah212]

very nice pipe..

i love clay pipes..i find alot of em around here..

do they have any value?