Trying to find out if this is a clay pipe piece

[Alaskan Distractions]

I’m trying to find out if this is a clay pipe piece..I found it on the beach in Petersburg, Alaska and I am pretty sure it’s part of a pipe...I just have no clue what it’s made of or how old it might be...any info would be awesome!!

 

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[creskol]

I don't think it is a clay pipe, but rather the remains of a small, mid-1800's clay bird figurine similar to this one:

 

[creskol]

Welcome to the forum, Mandy!

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Welcome to Tnet from Toronto Mandy!
Creskol has an interesting theory regarding your find, but I'm fairly certain what you've found is indeed a clay pipe bowl.

I primarily detect farm fields here in Southern Ontario and I've found a number of these over the years.
Yours dates to the mid-late 19thc.
Here's an interesting link to a UK based website that discusses the history of clay pipes... http://www.pipearchive.co.uk/howto/glossary.html

"This website has been set up provide a guide to our collections and to make some of the more significant elements of it available online. In particular, these pages are intended to help you with all your pipe related queries and to provide a 'one stop shop' for anyone trying to identify pipes or prepare a report on excavated material. Although the bulk of our holdings relate to the clay tobacco pipe industry, our extensive collections also include pipes made of all materials - briar, porcelain, metal etc. - as well as other tobacco and smoking related ephemera."


The first pic shows pre-19thc pipes, the second pics shows post-18thc pipes.
Dave

 

[creskol]

I have never seen a clay pipe with a base on it like that. I think it its either a clay whistle or a figurine .. or maybe a figurine whistle.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Here's a similar example I found a few years ago.
The pipe bowl I found dates to the mid-1850s.
Dave

 

[creskol]

Here's a similar example I found a few years ago.
The pipe bowl I found dates to the mid-1850s.
Dave

Hmmm ..

 

[RW]

I picture of the only side not showing might help solve.... what would be the inside of the bowl.

 

[Tony in SC]

It's a clay pipe. The round part with the small hole is where the stem is broken Off.

 

[Alaskan Distractions]

Oh oops! I posted one picture twice lol

 

[GaRebel1861]

Looks to be a clay pipe fragment to me as well.

 

[firemanphob]

Can't say for sure but welcome from Indiana

 

[Alaskan Distractions]

Thank you!

 

[RW]

Yup. I'd say clay pipe too.

 

[creskol]

I am curious .,.,.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Definitely a pipe, I've got a few from dig sites in New Orleans

 

[A2coins]

Great relic and awesome ID

 

[A2coins]

Welcome to tne from MI Tommy

 

[Red-Coat]

Absolutely a tobacco pipe. One interesting thing about clay pipes is that the diameter of the hole in the stem progressivley decreases as the pipes become more recent. Probably because stem lengths were progressivly decreasing. Although only 'verified' for pipes originating from Britain, it does at least provide some indication of date for clay pipes in general. Building on work by J. C. Harrington in the 1950s (he examined thousands of pipe stems excavated at Jamestown and other colonial Virginia sites) Louis Binford later devised a mathematical formula from which he derived the following table (the cut-off dates are of course not absolute):

9/64" bore dates to 1590-1620
8/64" bore dates to 1620-1650
7/64" bore dates to 1650-1680
6/64" bore dates to 1680-1720
5/64" bore dates to 1720-1750
4/64" bore dates to 1750-1800

The easiest way to check the bore is with set of small steel drill bits. Carefully insert the bits into the stem hole until you find one that fits exactly.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Absolutely a tobacco pipe. One interesting thing about clay pipes is that the diameter of the hole in the stem progressivley decreases as the pipes become more recent. Probably because stem lengths were progressivly decreasing. Although only 'verified' for pipes originating from Britain, it does at least provide some indication of date for clay pipes in general. Building on work by J. C. Harrington in the 1950s (he examined thousands of pipe stems excavated at Jamestown and other colonial Virginia sites) Louis Binford later devised a mathematical formula from which he derived the following table (the cut-off dates are of course not absolute):

9/64" bore dates to 1590-1620
8/64" bore dates to 1620-1650
7/64" bore dates to 1650-1680
6/64" bore dates to 1680-1720
5/64" bore dates to 1720-1750
4/64" bore dates to 1750-1800

The easiest way to check the bore is with set of small steel drill bits. Carefully insert the bits into the stem hole until you find one that fits exactly.

Isn't the bowl size also an indication of age? I seem to remember hearing that the older pipes had small bowls and they slowly got bigger as tobacco prices went down and it became more common