They were also subject to marked regional variation prior to the nineteenth century, so the shape can also be used to identify which part of the country a pipe comes from. For this reason, it is important to look at specific local typologies as well as the more general national ones.
Early pipes dating from before the English Civil War of the s tend to follow London fashions but the disruption of the war appears to have allowed regional forms to develop. These regional fashions continued until the mid-nineteenth century when improved transport networks allowed pipes to be traded over much larger areas, diluting local fashions. There was also a move towards larger manufactories producing a wide range of different shaped pipes which do not follow the earlier typological progression and are more difficult to place into a simple type series.
In broad terms there were always two different styles of pipe in contemporary use; those with heels and those with spurs. A heel is the term used for a flat-based projection underneath the bowl of a pipe, which typically has near vertical sides, or ones that flare out towards its base.
A heel is usually broader than it is deep, as opposed to a spur, which is the opposite. A spur is the term used for a projection underneath the bowl that is usually longer than it is broad. It typically tapers to a pointed or rounded base, although later varieties sometimes have the end trimmed off.
Pipes without a heel or spur were produced for the export trade from the mid-seventeenth century onwards but only came into general use in Britain from the mid-nineteenth century onwards.
Diagram showing the most commonly used terminology for different parts of the pipe. Drawn by D. Heel forms were the earliest style to be introduced in the late sixteenth century and remained the dominant form in most areas for at least the next century.
Spur forms first appear in the very early seventeenth century and soon became an alternative style used in lesser numbers in most areas of the country. During the seventeenth century both types generally had rather squat barrel-shaped forms and they almost always have a band of milling at the rim.
Seventeenth century bowls tend to tip forward slightly and had quite thick walls. Burnishing was used for better qualities of pipes and almost without exception pipes had bottered rims i.
The bowl forms stayed quite similar but increased in size during the course of the century as tobacco became cheaper and more readily available and the quantity consumed at any one time increased. This is why the size of the bowl for is very important during this period and it is essential to compare the forms with a life size typology. The bowl walls became correspondingly thinner and the use of rim milling stopped around in the south, but lingered on until around in the midlands and north; its use appears to have been associated with specific bowl styles and it was phased out as new styles emerged.
Regional variations are particularly strong during this period and some areas switched preference between heel and spur pipes or vice versa during this period. For much of the eighteenth century pipe bowls were generally upright and with fairly cylindrical bowl forms e.
Regional variation continues to be quite marked with burnishing persisting in some regions but not others. Rim milling dies out almost completely after about , as does the practice of rim bottering. Most locations have either patches or whole banks of shingle, some interspersed with areas of sand, others with areas of mud.
There are pebbles, mainly flint, which were naturally deposited by successive glacial actions up to the last Ice Age around 21, years ago.. For most visitors the fragments of clay tobacco pipe are the most memorable novelties, and a trademark of the Thames foreshore.
Pieces of pipe-stem are easy to pick up in certain areas, complete bowls less so.. There are so many fragments, not just because for more than years they were sold filled and routinely chucked when smoked, but also because the hundreds of pipe-makers working along the foreshore would likely ditch their kiln leftovers or rejects into the Thames.
Even today most will be found close to where the numerous ferries used to transport workers either across or along the Thames, because although the Thames currents will move many things around over the course of time the mud will also tend to accept, envelope and preserve many things where they fell.
The top pipe bowl above dates from while the one below is a fairly typical decorated one from Tobacco Pipes and a Brazier Hermitage by the Dutch still-life painter Pieter Claesz showing a very similar form to the older pipe bowl above. Two other common items that can do with a little background are the oyster shells and the animal bones. Oysters have been native to the Thames Estuary since the beginnings of time apparently, and it was only relatively recently that they ceased to be a major food source especially for the poor.
The same applies to the animal bones.. In the native Indian tribes of what we now call America, smoking had already been an important ritual that had been practiced for many centuries before. At first only the rich could afford tobacco, being an expensive luxury, although farmers soon began to cultivate fields of it here in England.
However, King James 1st was not favorable and had crops destroyed. This proved to be unpopular with the people and so tobacco was then imported with tax applied. In other parts of Europe people were put to death for smoking, and yet during times of plague men, women and children were forced to smoke as it was thought to be a cure. The habit spread quickly across the country and by the mid 17th Century the manufacture of clay pipes was a well established trade.
By , when the industry reached a peak, almost every town and city in England had pipe makers.
0コメント