Artifact of the Month: Pipe Stems

When thinking about life on a sailing ship in the eighteenth century, what pastimes come to mind? While drinking and gambling certainly top the list, another common habit would have included smoking.

Smoking tobacco became fashionable in England towards the end of the sixteenth century, and by the early seventeenth century clay pipes had become commonplace. Pipes were inexpensive and relatively durable, which explains their discovery in many archaeological contexts, including Queen Anne’s Revenge/La Concorde.

Pipe stems from the site are made of white clay called kaolin. These were made in a two-piece mold in which the stem, bowl, and heel (or spur) adjoin. Our pipes are found in concretion and in dredge spoil, frequently alongside other artifact types. Unfortunately, our pipes are not found complete. Three hundred years beneath the water may have something to do with that. Bowl fragments, which can be dated based on a distinctive shape that evolved over time or by maker’s marks, can provide archaeologists with a great deal of information, however they are fragile and don’t usually survive. Instead, most pipe fragments so far discovered are pipe stems.

While the dating of tobacco pipes has tended to rely on the shape of the bowl, this is not the only means by which to date a pipe. Dating can also be approximated based on bore diameter but doing so requires understanding the relationship between stem length and the size of the hole that runs through the stem to the pipe bowl.

Early tobacco pipes were short stemmed, averaging about three and a half inches. By the third quarter of the seventeenth century, the average stem length was between eleven and twelve inches, and lengths of thirteen inches and longer seem to have become common during the first half of the eighteenth century.

To make the hole through the pipe stem, a wire was pushed down the stem while it was supported in the mold. With a shorter stem, a fairly large hole was made using a thick wire since the wire did not have far to travel. With a longer stem, and a longer distance to traverse, a thicker wire was more likely to stick through the side than a thinner one. Consequently, smaller wires were used as stems became longer. This is what allows us to date our pipe fragments to likely 1680-1710.

As mentioned earlier, the pipe fragments have been discovered in association with a variety of other material types, found next to cannon balls in one instance, and most recently discovered in a concretion with two lead sounding weights. Many times, the discovered stems are fragmentary, and piecing them back together once they’ve been removed and conserved is as much a part of their preservation as anything else we do in the lab. Ultimately, they, like the glassware and pewter plates, provide a snapshot into the lives of those aboard Queen Anne’s Revenge and La Concorde – a story whose telling is in all the fine details that make conservation challenging, but ultimately so rewarding.

Sources:
-Higgins, D.A. ‘Surry Clay Tobacco Pipes’ in P.J. Davey (ed.), The Archaeology of the Clay Tobacco Pipe, VI, British Archaeological Reports. Oxford, British Series 97. 1981.
-Hume, Ivor Noël. A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1969.
-The National Pipe Archive. Accessed August 30, 2021. http://www.pipearchive.co.uk/index.html     

Further Reading:
-Carnes-McNaughton, Linda. "Tobacco Pipe and Tool Analysis from Shipwreck 31CR314 Queen Anne's Revenge." Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project Research Report and Bulletin Series QAR-B-07-04, 2007.

Images:
-Pipe bowl from site 31CR314, Queen Anne's Revenge/La Concorde. Image by NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
-Pipe stem in concretion from site 31CR314, Queen Anne's Revenge/La Concorde. Image by NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
-Illustration of pipe stem from site 31CR314, Queen Anne's Revenge/La Concorde. Image by NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.