Thanks Tim- nice site
 

 

Carl Steen
 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Baumann, Timothy E <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thu, Dec 9, 2010 10:13 pm
Subject: FYI - Online Type Collection for Pamplin Pipes


Online Type Collection for Pamplin Pipes -

http://anthromuseum.missouri.edu/minigalleries/pamplinpipes/pamplinpipes.shtml



Pamplin Clay Tobacco Pipes 



Clay tobacco pipes are a common artifact type found in historic Euro-American 

archaeological sites. These inexpensive and disposable items were generally 

manufactured, used, and thrown away within a very short span of time, and 

individual styles can often be traced to specific manufacturer and period of 

production. Thus, clay pipes can serve as a valuable tool in helping to date a 

historic archaeological site. 



Clay pipes imported from England typically have a small bowl and long stem and 

are made of kaolin (a fine, white clay); this type of pipe is common to 

Colonial-period archaeological sites. A number of different kinds of clay pipes 

were also produced locally. A common type produced in the eastern United States 

in the 18th and 19th centuries has a comparatively large bowl with a short stem 

into which a longer stem (usually of reed) was inserted. The area of Pamplin, 

Virginia, is one the localities where this type is known to have been produced 

in large quantities. Manufactured by individual pipemakers beginning in about 

1740, and by the Pamplin Smoking Pipe and Manufacturing Company, which operated 

from 1878 until 1951, pipes from the Pamplin area are distinguished by the 

high-quality, deep red, local clay from which they were made. The Akron Smoking 

Pipe Company of Ohio also owned a plant in Pamplin from 1890 to 1920, and 

produced Pamplin-type pipes during that time period.



In 1972, Missouri avocational archaeologists Henry and Jean Hamilton published 

an article about Pamplin pipes that remains the definitive source on the 

subject. The Hamiltons examined 4,451 pipes from the Pamplin area (recovered 

from the Pamplin Company’s factory grounds and from the site of a local store 

that sold home-industry pipes) and identified 39 styles that represented the 

majority of pipe forms produced in the Pamplin area from the mid-18th to 

mid-20th centuries. The Hamiltons’ personal Pamplin pipe type collection, which 

includes examples of most of these forms and is now housed by the University of 

Missouri's Museum of Anthropology, is presented in its entirety in this online 

exhibit.



References and Related Links

Hamilton, H. and J. Hamilton. 1972. Clay pipes from Pamplin. Missouri 

Archaeologist 34(1–2):1–47.

Historic Clay Tobacco Pipes

Hume, I. 1969. A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America. New York: Random House.

Sudbury, B. 1986. An illustrated 1895 catalogue of the Akron Smoking Pipe Co. 

Historic Clay Tobacco Pipe Studies 3:1–42.

Sudbury, B. 1979. Historic clay tobacco pipemakers in the United States of 

America. The Archaeology of the Clay Tobacco Pipe II: The United States of 

America. British Archaeological Reports International Series 60:151–341.

Text prepared by Mary French, winter 2006.

Photos by Charmagne Thompson.