Clay Pipe Info Please.

[mawnansmiff]

Hi folks, I have a couple of clay pipes that at first glance appear to be rather old but they both have painted mouthpieces that don't look quite so old. One is red and the other is yellow.
Does anyone know when they started to paint the mouthpieces? Knowing that its purpose is to prevent the pipe sticking to the lips I wonder if any other method was employed to do the same thing.
I want to give them to a local folk museum but would be embarrassed to state they were 'old' only to find out they actually are of quite recent manufacture.
Any advice chaps?
Regards,
Jay.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Any photo, chap?
Bowls look anything like this?

 

[bromano]

Dutch clay pipes?

 

[didache]

Hard to tell I think ... I have a General Gordon clay, but I know it was made in modern times from a genuine Victorian mould and so it is technically indistinguishable from a truly old one. I really am not sure if it is possible to tell the provenance unless it was dug up from an old ash pit. Perhaps the painted mouthpiece will help.

 

[papipeguy]

I believe that nail polish is also used to "paint" the tip of the stem.

 

[jpmcwjr]

The above clay pipe bowls were all found in the grounds in and around the Greenwich Naval Station- except the new one. They could have been Dutch made, but more likely somewhere not far away.
Jay- Since shellac has been around for many centuries, that may have been the first painting of clay pipes. Don't know when varnish came into being. Is the paint you mention colored?

 

[mawnansmiff]

John..."Is the paint you mention colored?"
"Hi folks, I have a couple of clay pipes that at first glance appear to be rather old but they both have painted mouthpieces that don't look quite so old. One is red and the other is yellow."
Answer your question chum? ::
Regards,
Jay.

 

[indianafrank]

At one time I had over a thousand clay pipes. I finally sold them after 40 years of accumulation..
When did they paint the mouth pieces?
Many of these found in the States, came with the first settlers from Germany, England, etc. And they were not painted, they were dyed. Paint had not yet been invented. They were dyed in those countries beginning in the early 1700's.
The Native American clay pipes found in the eastern states were dyed as far back as the 1600's. Those pipes were dyed with plants of different varieties, as well as using some metals.
Many dyes were made from different metals, woods, plants, and even seaweed...and used a bleaching process.

 

[condorlover1]

Jay without seeing pictures I would hazard a guess that you have a couple of Pollock Pipes from John Pollock and Sons of Stott Street, Manchester. The last owner being Gordon Pollock who just died short of his 100th birthday a few years back. The pipes have either a red, green or yellow wash on the tips added before firing and was designed to stop the lips sticking to the stem as clay is porous stuff and the action of repeatedly tearing the lip membrane can lead to lip cancer. During the Victorian era the tips were often painted with a light red shellac varnish and before that I believe bees wax was used. The currently available German clays are unglazed on the tips and I have always recommended painting them red with a coat of the wives hard nail polish but avoid using the sparkly purple stuff!

 

[mawnansmiff]

Thanks chaps. I shall endeavour to get some pictures together in the near future once my body returns to normal functionality :roll:
Regards,
Jay.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Go in health, Jay! And I will work on my reading retention.... Comprehension is fine, just the retention is not always all right.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Pictures of all three of my clay pipes are now on the fresh thread "Clay Pipes:Old Or Modern?
Regards,
Jay.