George - that's a very cool find. But I've never seen a tamper with a round base like yours. All the ones I've seen personally and in reference books have a flat base. These are very difficult artifacts to date, and I don't know of any in the literature that can be dated based on the archaeological context in which they were found. That is, except for an amazing one I witnessed my buddy Stan dig from a 17th century trash pit a few years ago. Pics of his are below, and this tamper bears a likeness of a colonial soldier of the period. One way to get a rough date for a tamper is to consider the diameter of the base. Since the early (17th century) pipe bowls were quite small, it would take a tamper with a correspondingly small base to use with them. Stan's tamper has a very small base that matches up nicely with the bowls of that period. I can't tell what the diameter of your base is, but it doesn't look all that small. I have a large number of intact 18th century pipe bowls, and the average opening at the top of the bowl averages about 15-16mm, and then tapers down. A couple of my early, bulbous bowls run smaller at only about 11mm, and Stan's tamper will fit them. If yours is less than 15mm it could possibly have been used during the 18th century. But if its bigger than 16mm it either fit a newer, larger pipe bowl, or it might not be a tamper at all. Anyway, just thought I'd throw my 2 cents worth out there. Again, very nice recovery.
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Very interesting I had no idea they made allot of them in depictions like that. Neat find vino,It looks like a Cherub on the top.a very modest Cherub
!Man you do find the darndest things.I would think it is a bowl tamper?But he does make a point.
