David, you can still purchase modern made, German manufactured, white
ball clay pipes with the three masted ship on one side, and the fouled
anchor on the other, on eBay. Check the tobacciana section in
collectables and search for the term "clay".
Smoke
On 10/24/05, David Babson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Last year the group I was working with found a very elaborately molded
> white clay pipe, that would also fit this 1840-1870 range from
> associated ceramics. It had a three-masted ship with gunports
> (man-o'war or a whaler) on one side, and a tall, thin anchor fouled with
> a single line on the other side. The person who found it is a former
> Marine, and immediately recognized the fouled anchor motif. The anchor
> and line are arranged differently from the modern USMC insignia, but, as
> I understand it, the Marine Corps has used the fouled anchor, on
> buttons, etc. since the first decade of the 19th century, so I cannot
> completely discount a connection, by means of a veteran buying and using
> such a pipe. I've been unsuccessful in finding pictures of Marine Corps
> insignia from before the Civil War. I have heard of white clay tobacco
> pipes as symbolically-active artifacts; the same is true of
> historical-pictorial whiskey flasks from this same period, and a bit
> earlier.
>
> D. Babson.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Lauren Cook
> Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 3:12 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Clay Pipe Markings
>
> 1) "it is a common design motif on pipes that were produced by several
> American factories through most of the 19th century"
>
> Actually, most appear to have been made by White or McDougall in
> Scotland or
> other makers elsewhere in Britain. Any American production was dwarfed
> by
> the output of Scottish and British makers.
>
> 2) "one common 'explanation' is that it originally stood for 'Tommy
> Duncan'"
>
> That's one I've never heard before. The usual attribution of those who
> bother to make one is to someone named Thomas Dermer.
>
> Walker, Iain C.
> 1966 TD Pipes: A Preliminary Study. Quarterly Bulletin, Archaeological
> Society of Virginia 20:86-102 (July 1966).
>
> 3) "I do not believe the man who bought a clay pipe from a store or
> ship
> chandler actually paid much attention to the designs."
>
> I believe they did. And the studies below show that at least in the
> urbanized northeast there were selective preferences among smokers for
> pipes
> with ethnic and nativist motifs.
>
> See:
>
> Cook, Lauren J.
> 1989 Tobacco-Related Material and the Construction of Working-Class
> Culture.
> In, Interdisciplinary Investigations of the Boott Mills, Lowell,
> Massachusetts. Volume III: The Boarding House System as a Way of Life,
> edited by Mary C. Beaudry and Stephen A. Mrozowski, pp. 209-229.
> Cultural
> Resources Management Study No. 21. National Park Service, Boston.
>
> and
>
> Reckner, Paul F.
> 2000 Negotiating Patriotism at Five Points: Clay Tobacco Pipes and
> Patriotic
> Imagery Among Trade Unionists and Nativists in a Nineteenth-Century New
> York
> Neighborhood. In, Tales of the Five Points: Working-Class Life in
> Nineteenth-Century New York. Volume II: An Interpretive Approach to
> Understanding Working-Class Life, Rebecca Yamin, ed., pp. 99-110. John
> Milner Associates, Inc., West Chester, PA.
>
> 4) "why not kick TD around for a few days?"
>
> Why not read Walker's article and save yourself the trouble?
>
> Lauren J. Cook, RPA
> Senior Archaeologist
> Richard Grubb & Associates, Inc.
> 30 North Main Street
> Cranbury, NJ 08512
>
> Ph: 609 655-0692 ext 312
> Fx: 609 655-3050
> email: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Ron
> May
> Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 1:40 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Clay Pipe Markings
>
>
> I am surprised Smoke Pfiefer has not explained in detail about the TD
> pipes.
> So, at the risk of his wrath, let me state that it is a common design
> motif
> on pipes that were produced by several American factories through most
> of
> the
> 19th century. Theories about the TD abound, but one common "explanation"
> is
> that it originally stood for "Tommy Duncan"--- who he was remains a
> mystery
> to
> me. I would guess that many pipe designers simply picked up the
> initials
> along with the stars, shields, and other devices. Out here in the Far
> Southwest,
> boxes of dozens or hundreds of clay pipes were shipped to market with
> little
> explanation of the designs. I do not believe the man who bought a clay
> pipe
> from a store or ship chandler actually paid much attention to the
> designs.
> Still, we like to have our little mysteries in archaeology and why not
> kick
> TD
> around for a few days?
>
> Ron May
> Legacy 106, Inc.
>
--
Smoke Pfeiffer
845 Cagle Rock Road
Russellville, Ar. 72802
"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity."
---Sigmund Freud, General Introduction to Psychoanalysis---
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