If you would like to look at some opium pipe bowls, connectors,
saddles and cans, go to: http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/aacc/illus.htm

Pipe bowls can be, and have, been made out of every material one can
imagine.  Metal bowls are very rare.  Metal and glass bowls smoke very
hot and there is no absorption into the body of the pipe and do not
form a "cake" inside the bowl.  They become "juicy" with tar and
nicotine sludge in the bottom and are hot to hold. Their advantage in
a frontier environment is that they do not break very easily.  I have
been writing up the tobacco related artifact assemblage from Fort
Atkinson, Nebraska, 1820-1827.  One silver pipe was recovered from the
excavations (Pfeiffer, Michael A.,2010 A Silver Tobacco Pipe from the
1820-1827 Military Fort Atkinson, Nebraska, USA. Society for Clay
Tobacco Pipe Research Newsletter 77:38-39. Spring/Summer).
Most metal pipes have NO markings on them.

I have a draft two page bibliography on metal pipes if anyone cares to
peruse it.


On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 2:49 PM, Branstner, Mark C <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hello Folks,
>
> Just found this little white metal pipe bowl on a ca. 1815-1830 farmstead in southern Illinois.
>
> http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/692/p6060018dn.jpg/
>
> http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/209/p6060019.jpg/
>
> Unique to my experience … I suppose it could be an opium pipe, but the context seems a bit of a stretch. Anybody have any ideas?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Mark
>
>
> ___________________________________
>
>
> Mark C. Branstner, RPA
>
> Historical Archaeologist
>
>
> Illinois State Archaeological Survey
>
> Prairie Research Institute
>
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
>
> 209 Nuclear Physics Lab, MC-571
>
> 23 East Stadium Drive
>
> Champaign, IL 61820
>
>
> Phone: 217.244.0892
>
> Fax: 217.244.7458
>
> Cell: 217.549.6990
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
> "As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their
>
> faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving
>
> only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their
>
> cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste
>
> of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to
>
> make plans." - E. Hemingway



-- 
Smoke Pfeiffer

Still waiting to be killed by the hole in the ozone layer.
ABO