***What Are You Smoking, December 2020?***

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

18 Fresh Erik Stokkebye 4th Generation Pipes
9 Fresh Dunhill Pipes
72 Fresh Peterson Pipes
New Cigars
48 Fresh Savinelli Pipes

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Status
Not open for further replies.

The Clay King

(Formerly HalfDan)
Oct 2, 2018
6,532
62,669
43
Chesterfield, UK
www.youtube.com
To misquote Monty Python "And now for something a bit different".
There was a time when the enormous choices of today in the area of different pipe shapes, what pipes are made of and bowl sizes was limited to just one shape and one material - clay.

The smaller than usual bowl size and thinner than usual shank and stem of the pipe I posted above - compared to most other briars I've seen of that period - makes me thing of a pipe more suited for a woman but compared to early clay pipes it's a big bowl.

In the time of James I (1566-1625) tobacco was brutally expensive. He's the one that initiated probably the first 'tax for health reasons' and raised tobacco tax 40-fold from 2 to 82 pence per pound, making tobacco more expensive than silver with the result that the bowls were really small compared to even fifty years later.

Below are two examples of excavated clays from that period - one without a maker's initials or trademark (not unusual for that period when less than 10% of pipes were stamped with either) - and the other with a maker's mark:-
1) Circa 1600-1610 - a previous owner in the middle of the 19th cent. has thoughtfully had the clay mounted with a horn stem.
2) Circa 1580-1590 - Incuse W.B (William Batchelor 1580-1620 / 1619-1635) on the underside of the heel.
View attachment 54024
@virkia Did you actually smoke the one with the horn stem?
I wouldn't mind smoking it - it would be just right for English Civil War re-enactment.
I used to have an English Civil War clay pipe which I smoked when I went to see the Sealed Knot and Cavendish's Horses at Bolsover Castle last year - where I found it impossible to light in all the wind - but I've sold it now!
I read it was King James I who wrote A Counterblaste to Tobacco in the 1600s - widely regarded as the first piece of anti smoking literature:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.