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Kaolin pipe, stem fragment

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@ Cornell University

United State, Antebellum, Slavery

Description

Stem fragment of a kaolin (white clay) tobacco pipe. Decorated with a series of lines, bands and dots at the larger end, which was near the bowl, and marked in a beaded cartouche "L F" (with a matching empty cartouche on the opposite side) for the French maker L. Fiolet (pipes from that manufacturer are widely found in the US). These pipes were made with stems from a few inches to a foot or more in length, and tradition has it that the end would be broken off when shared so that the smoker has a fresh bit (or perhaps more likely, the prevalence of broken pipestems simply reflects their fragility). In the context here, these pipestem fragments may have been curated for use as beads, although the length of this example is less suggestive than others in the collection of that use. Archaeologists use the bore diameter of collections of pipestems to calculate the age of the collection, but the small collection size and likelihood of curation in a slavery context makes that less useful here.
Format:
Ceramic Kaolin Pipe Clay Equipment For Personal Use: Smoking And Tobacco Use Beads (Pierced Objects)
Created Date:
Circa 1800 1850
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From Collection

SSDPLACornell

Record Contributed By

Cornell University

Record Harvested From

ARTstor