CLAY PIPES

Modern Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Modern Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Buck Conner1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2015
Messages
4,592
Reaction score
557
I thought this may be fun and interesting to you guys, I can make a short series of original items collected over a 100 year period. This will be like a class room, if you guys have something make a new topic line and we can build a collection that none of the other groups have available.
First off my family have always been collectors of goods, the wife says “hoarders” (modern term used today). In some cases this term may fit and in most cases these family collectors have spent time and money in developing collections and knowing the history of each item. 
 
claypi13.jpg

<div align="center">
claypi14.jpg
claypi15.jpg
claypi6.gif
claypi12.jpg
claypi9.gif
_______________________________________________________​
 CLAY PIPES</div>

WE WERE REALLY LUCKY TO FINE THESE PIPES WITH EVERY OTHER HISTORY BUFF LOOKING FOR ANYTHING FROM THIS PERIOD IN OUR HISTORY. THE PRIVATE COLLECTIONS WERE UNBELIEVABLE. THE BIGGEST PROBLEM NAY WERE SELLING ALL THE AVERVAGE PIECES FOUND KEEPING THE GOOD STUFF FOR THEMSELVES OR SELLING TO LOCAL MUSEUMS.

MY FATHER WOULD TELL BE TO HOLD STILL WHEN SOMEONE WOULD ASK “ANY LUCK”. THE LESS WE SAID THE BETTER OFF WE WOULD BE, YOU NEVER KNEW WHO YOU WERE TALKING TO.  WHETHER IT WAS THE LAW OR SOMEONE WANTING TO STEAL WHAT YOU HAD JUST WORKED ALL MORNING DIGGING AND RAKING FOR. MY DAD AND HIS FRIENDS WERE ALWAYS ON THEIR GUARD.

CHARTS SHOWS WHERE FOUND - GROUP PICTURE SHOWS STYLES AND DESIGNS AVAILABLE IN CLAY PIPES FOUND IN PA, MD, DE, & IN NY STATES. COLLECTED ON PRIVATE PROPERTY WITH THE PROPERTY OWNERS PERMISSIONS.

<div align="center">_______________________________________________________​
These original clay pipes have become pretty pricey anymore, once in a great while I run across a few originals, (lots of fakes from the 70's anymore like the oxg. bowl shapes with the fancy designs).
</div>
 
Here's an original clay pipe that I smoke sometimes, I'm "very" careful with it

smokin10.jpg


Here's another original clay

turkey11.jpg
 
Here are the pictures that got lost yesterday with picture service.

img2.jpg
 
img3.jpg
 ​
img6.jpg
 ​
img4.gif
 
Back in the 1960's you could go to where known period encampmnets had been held (usually private property), with the owners permission we would search every piece of ground for fire pits or spots that looked like it could have had one. You would get lucky about 1 in 10 for finding a fire pit location then the work started with carefully removing the top layers of dirt going through each spade removed. The biggest problem was not breaking a "find" trying to get it out unharmed.

We would take a small piece of old wood while sitting at the the fire pit location and throw it over your shoulder and watch where it landed, then search that area away from the pit. In one area using this method we found over a 100 broken arrow heads where the Indians knapping flint broke a point then he throw it away. My grandfather told us to us this idea and it works.

The best spots were ant hills, those little guys would drag anything shiney into their home and covered it. Trade beads were always found, pieces of clay pipe (stems), etc. Pretty much anything small that they could handle could be found.

.
 
I found my pipe in May 1962. I was playing baseball vs/@. a rivals field. They'd just re-groomed the infield dirt with Loom from the Monongahela River near Monessen, PA. As we took infield warmups, I groomed my position at first base and kicked loose and threw larger stones off the field. I found a red one that turned out to be this pipe. I kept it, put it into my equipment bag, and, I put into my accoutrements and use it, now. I have a friend who is an archiologist for a couple companies, he refers to this
as, "This is a real pipe!" says its 225 to 250 years old. When asked how he knows, he says, "It's my job, what I do for a living." I don't smoke. I carry it and lay it on the table and talk about it.I light it up in special occasion with a small dab.

Smoke pouch.jpgSmoke Pouch Contents.jpgOriginal pipe found in Mon's loom..jpg
 
The pipes that NWTF Lobo and Mad Irish Jack have are typical fur trade era (mid 1600's all the way to the 1850's), have found these styles at Civil War encampment sites which would be very late. This style was imported from Europe, have never found any proof of being made in North American's ovens.

The family has collected clay pipes mainly from around Pennsylvania. Once in a while a few members would go to new locations. Here's just a few that are still left as the larger collections were sold.

img2.jpg img4.jpg

img5.jpg

img3.jpg
This gives you the viewer an idea of what could be found in Pennsylvania, New York and other neighboring states from the F&I War period.


buck conner.jpg
 
Last edited:
I found my pipe in May 1962. I was playing baseball vs/@. a rivals field. They'd just re-groomed the infield dirt with Loom from the Monongahela River near Monessen, PA. As we took infield warmups, I groomed my position at first base and kicked loose and threw larger stones off the field. I found a red one that turned out to be this pipe. I kept it, put it into my equipment bag, and, I put into my accoutrements and use it, now. I have a friend who is an archiologist for a couple companies, he refers to this
as, "This is a real pipe!" says its 225 to 250 years old. When asked how he knows, he says, "It's my job, what I do for a living." I don't smoke. I carry it and lay it on the table and talk about it.I light it up in special occasion with a small dab.

View attachment 901View attachment 905View attachment 906
Is the brown bowl made of clay?
 
Yes, most all the old pipes were from clay sources, colors could be added but most are from the color of the clay gathered at the source. Native American's made pipes from soapstone and catinite with the natural color shown.

cat pipe.jpgcatinite pipe.jpg

WARNING
- don't go by the shape, color, etc. and think you have an old pipe.
Original molds were duplicated and these pipes are still available today at the different dealers like Esty.

Clay_Pipe_Smoker.jpg




buck conner.jpg

 
Last edited:
Still a cool pipe. I can see it being smoked, with a group sitting around a campfire.
 
Since the topic is pipes. These are some pics of a red pipe stone pipe I built a few years ago. I was in Minnesota and met a Sioux Native American that showed me some techniques and gave me a bit of guidance about what was traditional and acceptable for effigy pipes as well as some lessons on how to work pipe stone with traditional tools etc. This one is elk hide, buffalo horn tip, red oak, mink tails with bead and feather decorations. I also made the stand it sets on and am presently working on some other ideas. As for your original posts about the old English trade pie, we find a lot of those in SC but rarely ever intact.
 

Attachments

  • unspecifiedMLV7ZCUO.jpg
    unspecifiedMLV7ZCUO.jpg
    429.5 KB · Views: 5
  • unspecifiedOLOSJC26.jpg
    unspecifiedOLOSJC26.jpg
    235.5 KB · Views: 5
  • unspecifiedPHTVDI95.jpg
    unspecifiedPHTVDI95.jpg
    254.3 KB · Views: 5
  • unspecified78755H0S.jpg
    unspecified78755H0S.jpg
    381.7 KB · Views: 5
  • unspecified.jpgp.jpg
    unspecified.jpgp.jpg
    239.3 KB · Views: 5
when I was a young un in the 1950's I used to walk the potato fields in my state of R.I. that was a prince able commodity back then looking for stone Indian arrow heads, and in doing so found a great quantity of CLAY PIPES, always with broken stems. so I asked the old cider hound's that would gather the DEPOT and they said you smoked while plowing with a team of horses and if the stem broke it became to hot to hold so they would through it into the ground of the field! they told me that the old timers with no front teeth would wrap course carpet thread around it to get a purchase and to keep it from turning in there mouth! the clay pipes were mostly marked GERMANY and IRELAND , cast into them. and they were shipped in wooden boxes lined/ packed with fine saw dust.
 
This is an oil painting done from a picture taken at Fort Michilimackinac smoking a pipe made from red pipestone (catlinite)
Voyageur.jpg
 
when I was a young un in the 1950's I used to walk the potato fields in my state of R.I. that was a prince able commodity back then looking for stone Indian arrow heads, and in doing so found a great quantity of CLAY PIPES, always with broken stems.

Funny you mentioned the broken stems, some just broke naturely but most were broken by the owners according to several journals written in the early settling of this country, said to be bad luck for another to smoke your pipe.

As for your original posts about the old English trade pie, we find a lot of those in SC but rarely ever intact.

I lived 13-1/2 miles from the Malvern "Paoli Massure" site and 1-1/2 miles from Valley Forge encampments - both places had large camps at different times in history. My one grandfathers's farm was at the site of Braddford's troops during the war. Needless to say we had some pretty good picking sites for pipes and other dropped items. Most clays had broken stems, but my father had a half dozen wooden shipping boxes lined/packed with fine saw dust and marked with German stampings (like you mentioned), they brough more than a good condition musket when sold.

"they told me that the old timers with no front teeth would wrap course carpet thread around it to get a purchase and to keep it from turning in there mouth!" the clay pipes were mostly marked GERMANY and IRELAND , cast into them. and they were shipped in wooden boxes lined/ packed with fine saw dust.

I have read about the wool wrap, questioned a writer about this - he had no documented proof .....

This is an oil painting done from a picture taken at Fort Michilimackinac smoking a pipe made from red pipestone (catlinite)

Is this one of Jerry Crandall's or David Wright's pieces ?



buck conner.jpg
 
broken pipe stems, it is a fact that pipes used in inns had foot long or longer stems so that the next person who used it would break off an inch or so as that the next traveler didn't get germs from the previous user. they were called TAVERN PIPES. using them at the inn kept the traveler from breaking his pipe during the travel on the rough roads.
 
broken pipe stems, it is a fact that pipes used in inns had foot long or longer stems so that the next person who used it would break off an inch or so as that the next traveler didn't get germs from the previous user. they were called TAVERN PIPES. using them at the inn kept the traveler from breaking his pipe during the travel on the rough roads.



I remember those kind of pipes from the 1960s but it wasn't, AHEM! tobacco that was in the bowl. o_O
 
broken pipe stems, it is a fact that pipes used in inns had foot long or longer stems so that the next person who used it would break off an inch or so as that the next traveler didn't get germs from the previous user. they were called TAVERN PIPES. using them at the inn kept the traveler from breaking his pipe during the travel on the rough roads.

These were common in the 1700's and early 1800's, have found and sold many from such sites _ taverns.

Clay_Pipe_Smoker.jpg claypipe1.jpg


buck conner.jpg
 
Back
Top