ENGLAND: Society for Clay Pipe Research speaker
- Thread starter briarfriar
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The price od admission is right; it's the round trip air ticket that's a deterrent. Have fun and report back on the meeting.
We're actually working with a colonial clay pipe expert on this side of the pond to identify a large number of clay pipes that were discovered on a colonial plantation site on our farm in Virginia. According to the expert, our oldest pipes appear to date in the time period between 1660 and 1700. The pipes include both domestically produced red terra cotta pipes as well as both English and Dutch clay pipes. According to the expert, a large number of the English clays found came from Bristol which was a major hub for English pipe manufacture and shipping in the era. I've posted a pic below of just a sampling of the pipes. I'll try and publish some more photos at a later date, but due to the ongoing archeology and research, we are holding off on making them public for the time being.
I hope you will publish your research when it's ready, especially on the terra cotta, which I've never before heard of.
Jay
Jay
briarfriar,
Our plan is to have the research published once the archeological work has been completed. The red terra cotta pipes are very interesting. They are believed to have been domestically produced in the Colonies during the 1600s and were most likely the result of the English Civil Wars when goods coming from England to the Colonies became scarce. In order to make up for the scarcity of English pipes, (besides trading with the Dutch) it's believed the Colonies began to product their own. These pipes were often decorated by taking twisted cording and wrapping it around the pipe before firing to make an impression into the clay. The pipes were then fired and after cooling, white clay was then rubbed into the impressions to highlight them and the pipes were then fired a second time to bake on the white clay (the pic I previously posted shows a terra cotta pipe stem fragment with remnants of the white clay still showing in the design).
Our plan is to have the research published once the archeological work has been completed. The red terra cotta pipes are very interesting. They are believed to have been domestically produced in the Colonies during the 1600s and were most likely the result of the English Civil Wars when goods coming from England to the Colonies became scarce. In order to make up for the scarcity of English pipes, (besides trading with the Dutch) it's believed the Colonies began to product their own. These pipes were often decorated by taking twisted cording and wrapping it around the pipe before firing to make an impression into the clay. The pipes were then fired and after cooling, white clay was then rubbed into the impressions to highlight them and the pipes were then fired a second time to bake on the white clay (the pic I previously posted shows a terra cotta pipe stem fragment with remnants of the white clay still showing in the design).
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