HELP WITH AGING A CLAY FIGURAL PIPE

[plymouthian12]

Found this tiny clay lion pipe while detecting a field that goes back to the 1600s. Can anyone tell me a rough age? Thanks
Kent

 

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[eyemustdigtreasure]

Found this tiny clay lion pipe while detecting a field that goes back to the 1600s. Can anyone tell me a rough age? Thanks
Kent

No age, yet hand carved, I believe, and for age, - should be fun looking for it on the internet, and I'm sure that there's books on the zillions of designs...good luck on that...!
Great Find...!

 

[Bramblefind]

That's lovely - nice find! One tool for dating is described here --

https://brickstoremuseum.org/education/archaeology/smar/clay-pipe-stems/#:~:text=Between%20the%201500%20and%201800's,archaeologists%20locate%20clay%20pipe%20fragments.

Another method of dating clay pipes is to measure the interior hole size of the stem. In the 1950’s, J.C. Harrington studied thousands of pipe stems from archaeological sites and concluded that pipe stems could be dated based on their interior hole or bore size.
Harrington published that early pipe stems (1590 to 1620) had larger holes than later pipe stems. In fact, Harrington categorized pipe bore sizes into six time periods.

Time Period Diameter
1590 to 1620 9/64 inches
1620 to 1650 8/64 inches
1650 to 1680 7/64 inches
1680 to 1720 6/64 inches
1720 to 1750 5/64 inches

Many times, archaeologists use a simple tool to age a clay pipe stems.
They construct a bore gauge by placing six drill bits ranging from 4/64 inches to 9/64 inches in a block of wood.
When locating clay pipe stems, they carefully place the pipe stem fragment on the drill bit that corresponds to a time range in which the pipe was made.

 

[plymouthian12]

That's lovely - nice find! One tool for dating is described here --

https://brickstoremuseum.org/education/archaeology/smar/clay-pipe-stems/#:~:text=Between%20the%201500%20and%201800's,archaeologists%20locate%20clay%20pipe%20fragments.

Thanks

 

[villagenut]

The problem with the bore hole method of pipe stem dating is that the timeline is presented in 30 to 40 year increments, which works well on long occupied sites (centuries) where there are hundreds of examples showing the evolution of changing bore holes. However, Harrington's formula ended in the later 1700s with a bore hole being about 5/64....which remained as a standard sized bore hole throughout the 1800s. I have seen one over-achieving archaeologist attribute a single pipe stem from a 1840s homestead to fit his theory of a possible 18th century occupation....which did not fit with other recovered material at the site. So one must be careful in using the bore hole formula without knowing just how exactly the formula was designed for long occupied sites, having hundreds or more examples to compare from the site, a realization of a standardized bore hole at the end of the chart. So a 5/64 bore hole could be from a 1700s occupation, but could just as well be from an 1850s site....the bore hole in yours is indicative of a reed stem pipe where a longer pipe stem is inserted into the larger bore hole. Nice figural bowl on that one.

 

[Joecoins]

Found it, but not much info, other than small 2.5 inches. No info on age/ location with this example I found.

 

[plymouthian12]

Found it, but not much info, other than small 2.5 inches. No info on age/ location with this example I found.
View attachment 2133213View attachment 2133214View attachment 2133215View attachment 2133216

Thanks

 

[plymouthian12]

The problem with the bore hole method of pipe stem dating is that the timeline is presented in 30 to 40 year increments, which works well on long occupied sites (centuries) where there are hundreds of examples showing the evolution of changing bore holes. However, Harrington's formula ended in the later 1700s with a bore hole being about 5/64....which remained as a standard sized bore hole throughout the 1800s. I have seen one over-achieving archaeologist attribute a single pipe stem from a 1840s homestead to fit his theory of a possible 18th century occupation....which did not fit with other recovered material at the site. So one must be careful in using the bore hole formula without knowing just how exactly the formula was designed for long occupied sites, having hundreds or more examples to compare from the site, a realization of a standardized bore hole at the end of the chart. So a 5/64 bore hole could be from a 1700s occupation, but could just as well be from an 1850s site....the bore hole in yours is indicative of a reed stem pipe where a longer pipe stem is inserted into the larger bore hole. Nice figural bowl on that one.

Thanks

 

[oldmxrat]

Can't help, but very cool find!

 

[Digger RJ]

Found this tiny clay lion pipe while detecting a field that goes back to the 1600s. Can anyone tell me a rough age? Thanks
Kent

Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[plymouthian12]

Thanks all