My best surface find to date-Clay Tobacco Pipe UPDATE

[N.J.THer]

Yesterday I went back to the farm field where I found the gold pocket watch. This field is the prime example of a site never is completely hunted out. It was been hit hard for at least twenty years. There were four people hunting when I arrived yesterday.

I was able to find three coins...non were silver so the fertilizer really ate them up. I think one is a 2 center but can't tell for sure.

My best find was a non metal surface find. There are shards of pottery everywhere but one piece was sticking out of the ground and looked a little to long and straight to be a cup handle so I decided to walk over and investigate. It was a nice clay pipe stem and a few inches away I spot a white circle which turned out to be the pipe bowl. I pieced them together and they fit perfectly. Must have just been broken by the plow when the soil was being turned over.

The pipe is marked so I will post some pictures to see if anyone has any information about the maker. If not I'll have to do some research during the off season.

Enjoy the pictures.

NJ

Side one of the pipe:

Side two of the pipe:

The stem at the bottom of the bowl has a T stamped into it:

Here are the parts placed together:

 

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[Old Fart in TN]

Re: My best surface find to date....Clay Pipe Anyone

nice find, I hope you find alot there.

 

[LadyDigger]

Re: My best surface find to date....Clay Pipe Anyone

Nice looking pipe....congrats!

Here's a link that might help or direct you to finding a possible date and what the name means (person who made it possibly)...

At the bottom of the main page you can click on links that show drawings of pipes....

good luck...let us know!
Annmarie

http://www.dawnmist.demon.co.uk/pipdex.htm

 

[Bavaria Mike]

Re: My best surface find to date....Clay Pipe Anyone

Awesome clay pipe find, congrats! I find pieces all the time but nothing close to what you found. HH, Mike

 

[allen]

Re: My best surface find to date....Clay Tobacco Pipe

neat pipe...

 

[hogge]

Re: My best surface find to date....Clay Tobacco Pipe

Nice.....I have found quite a few of these in old dumps by sifting. Our oldest dates to 1780-1800. I have a whole plastic bag full and some of them are coated with glaze. I have a gentleman in England on AOL named "claypipepeter" and he can probably date and tell you possible maker. Just E-Mail him on AOL. He is very interested in these and real friendly too. Todd

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

Re: My best surface find to date....Clay Tobacco Pipe

That is a great find! Congratulations!

 

[Don in SJ]

Re: My best surface find to date....Clay Tobacco Pipe

Other than those who dig privies or find one under a floor board to get the bowl and stem that matches is rather cool. I would be happy just to find a complete bowl, think I only ever found one unbroken bowl, with the letters T D...

Don

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

Re: My best surface find to date....Clay Tobacco Pipe

Clay, or kaolin, pipe stems look a bit like narrow white tree branches with holes down their centers. According to an article by Maj. Robert J. Dalessandro, pipe stems were the "17th, 18th, and 19th century equivalent of the cigarette butt". Clay pipes had very long stems and as the stems became clogged, the ends would be broken off and discarded. It's not uncommon to find these discarded pipe stems, but it wasn't until excavations at Jamestown in the early 1950s that archaeologists began realizing that these discarded stems could help them date a site. J. C. Harrington, an archaeologist with the National Park Service, studied hundreds of dated pipes and realized that the stem's bore diameters directly related to certain time periods. These are the guidelines Harrington determined:
Bore Date
9/64" 1590-1620
8/64" 1620-1650
7/64" 1650-1680
6/64" 1680-1710
5/64" 1710-1750
4/64" 1750-1800
You can determine the approximate dates of pipe stems you find like this: carefully clean the stem, removing dirt from the hole. Gently insert drill bits of the sizes mentioned above into the hole - the one that fits snugly gives you the size of the bore, which you can then match to a specific period.

I hope this helps!

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Re: My best surface find to date....Clay Tobacco Pipe

Thats a great find...and onthe surtface too...looks like you have a hot spot to hunt! Congrats!

 

[BuckleBoy]

Re: My best surface find to date....Clay Tobacco Pipe

Looks like "McDoulay" in the first photo. That's pretty incredible that you found both pieces--it'll make an excellent display

-Buckleboy

 

[Baggins]

Re: My best surface find to date....Clay Tobacco Pipe

WOW! Super cool find!
HH
Baggins

 

[Hunter]

Re: My best surface find to date....Clay Tobacco Pipe

Real nice pipe!

 

[N.J.THer]

Thank you Hogge for your contact in England...Mr. Hammond is very friendly and knowledgeable. Here is the email I received from Mr. Hammond.

Hello John.
I have looked at the website and the picts - and am pleased to see a kind
reference to myself on it too! The pipe is a late 19th/early 20thC export model
made by Duncan McDougall & Co of Glasgow, Scotland. They produced a lot of
pipes for export and this style with the pipe bowl marked TD is very common
amongst these so it is no surprise to find this one cropping up in your neck of the
woods. However for a ploughed field the condition is certainly very good. In
years of field walking myself I have never found one with this much stem intact
(even though it was found broken). I therefore guess the field must have only
been ploughed for the first time very recently.
You are welcome to post my comments onto the website with the pipe.
Best wishes, and happy hunting!
Peter Hammond (Society for Clay Pipe Research, Nottingham, England)

Thanks again Mr. Hammond.

The late 19th century time frame falls right into the era of some of my other finds. I believe the pocket watch was from 1891. I'm still looking for my first silver coin from these fields. I've seen multiple seated dimes, quarters and a half dollar recently come out of the fields. I also know of a 1935 bust dime and multiple reals so I will keep trying until I get one.

Happy hunting everyone.

NJ

 

[randazzo1]

neat pipe. unbelievable to find both peices lying on the surface.

Don in SJ - If I remember correctly the TD is the makers mark for Thomas Dorny - pipe maker in NJ area.

 

[angelus]

We've got a building out here on the island that used to be an old shooting gallery from the turn of the century. I find pipe pieces like this all over the place, there. I'm hoping the owners will let me md the place this summer.

Great pipe find!!