|
Date: |
|
Description: | A group of clay tobacco pipes recovered over a period from an allotment in Farnham. The report below by David Higgins is a reduc ed version of his report in the clay tobacco pipe newsletter.
In total, there were found to be 1,302 fragments in this collection, comprising 76 bowl fragments, 1,205 stem fragments and 21 mouthpieces. Although the fragments are generally very broken and battered from frequent cultivation of the allotments, they still provide a useful sample of pipes from the town because of the large size of the assemblage and the number of makers?? marks that it contains. In particular, there are some imported stem marks that have not been recorded from elsewhere in the county as well as a good example of a previously unrecorded mark for Anthony George, an early eighteenth century manufacturer from Farnham itself. Many of the fragments are so broken that only a part of the decorative design or just the mark itself survives. This makes it hard to quantify exactly how many examples of each design or characteristic are represented, although the overall pattern is reasonably clear.
Although rather fragmentary, this assemblage provides a good sample of pipes from Farnham, representing pipe consumption in the town from the late sixteenth century right through to the early twentieth century. The very early bowl (Figure 1) is particularly unusual and of a form that is rare nationally. It dates from a period when tobacco was an expensive luxury. Although the pipes generally follow London styles the pipe assemblage exhibits a number of influences from the Hampshire to the west. This is evident both from the styles of some of the bowls and marks as well as in terms of actual imports from Hampshire. These imports include early eighteenth century stamped stems from places such as East Woodhay as well as a number of nineteenth century pipes from different makers in the Portsmouth Harbour region. While the geographical location of Farnham close to the Hampshire border clearly explains some of these influences, there are two points to note. First, that although eighteenth-century stem marks from some distance to the west were found, there are no eighteenth-century marks from Guildford, which is a shorter distance to the east. There were several prolific pipemakers in Guildford at this time, whose products were marketed widely across other parts of the county. The lack of Guildford marks was noted from the smaller body of evidence in the Farnham Museum collection (Higgins 1981, 208-9) and this much larger sample reinforces this picture.
The pipes have been grouped into broad categories, each of which is described and discussed below.
Plain Bowls. The assemblage includes 45 plain bowl fragments, without either marks or decoration. One of these is a tiny heel bowl, dating from c1580-1610, which is one of only a very few such bowls that have ever been recovered from the county as a whole (Figure 1. There are 22 other heel bowls represented, eight of seventeenth century date and 14 of eighteenth-century date. The seventeenth-century heel bowls are of typical forms for London and the south east and they could well have been produced locally (Figures 2-3).
Most of the unmarked eighteenth century bowls are also of typical London area forms (e.g., Figures 5 & 11). At least five of these later bowls were made in the same mould with an unusual internal bowl mark in the form of a double cross (Figure 11). Other fragments show that this particular pipe had quite a narrow stem and it was clearly common locally, suggesting that these pipes were probably produced in the town itself, c1710-60. Some of the other early eighteenth-century fragments have very small and rather tapering heels that are verging on becoming a spur (e.g., Figure 6).
There are eight spur bowl fragments present in the group, all of seventeenth- or early eighteenth-century date (e.g., Figure 4).
Decorated Bowls. In addition to the decorated pipes that also have makers?? marks on them (see below), there are 14 decorated bowl fragments without surviving marks, all of which are probably of nineteenth-century date.
Decorated Stems. There were some decorated stems that were also associated with makers?? marks (see below) in addition to which there were ten nineteenth-century stems without marks.
Stamped Stems. There are three stem fragments with stamped marks, all of which date from the very end of the seventeenth century or the early part of the eighteenth century. There is one battered circular mark with unclear lettering that appears to read T/WAR/DS (Figure 7). This mark has not been identified, but it is of a typical Hampshire style and was probably imported to Farnham from the west. It occurs on quite a thick stem with a markedly oval section and a stem bore of 7/64??. The second mark is also very battered but can be identified as a IOSh/BARNS mark from East Woodhay in Hampshire (Figure 8). Joseph Barns is recorded there between 1714 and 1722 (Cannon 1991, 22) and his working period is likely to have extended from c1710-40. He was clearly a well established manufacturer since his pipes are relatively common and distributed over a wide area, including most of Hampshire as well as parts of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. This is the first recorded example from Surrey and it occurs on a burnished stem with a bore of 5/64??. Both of the Hampshire style marks are incuse but the final one has relief lettering reading A/GEO/RGE (Figure 9). There is a crown surrounding the letter A and the whole stamp is very detailed and neatly executed. This stamp occurs 16mm from the junction of a heel bowl with a stem bore of 6/64??. The mark is previously unrecorded but can be attributed to Anthony George of Farnham. He is recorded as a pipemaker in 1717 and died in 1734 (Higgins 1981, 239). He is probably the same Anthony George who married Mary Berrick at Farnham on 6 January 1690 (Internet; IGI). The pipe is well burnished and was clearly a good quality product.
Stamped Bowl Mark. There is just one stamped bowl mark, which is an incuse harp design stamped onto a thick-walled bowl with moulded milling of Irish style. This style was popular from about 1840-1910 and this example could either be an actual Irish import or a local copy in an Irish style.
Moulded Heel and Spur Marks. There are 14 heels or spurs of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century date with relief moulded marks on them. These are described in alphabetical order below: -
IB There is one spur fragment dating from c1820-80 with the initials IB. The bowl had narrow fluted decoration on it but not enough survives to see if it had leaf seams as well. Maker unknown.
AC There are two untrimmed heels of early nineteenth century type with the initials AC on them. At least one of these had a decorated bowl but neither of them is complete enough to see what the decoration would have been. These were probably made by Arthur Coster (I) of Fareham, who was working from at least 1784 until his death in 1816 (Fox & Hall 1979, 20).
ID There are seven eighteenth-century heels with the initials ID on them. In three cases the letters are normally applied but in four cases the D is incorrectly cut in the mould so that the D appears backwards (e.g., Figure 10). These pipes can all be attributed to John Denyer of Farnham, who was apprenticed in 1717 and who was still working in 1745 (Higgins 1981, 239).
GG There is one spur fragment dating from c1820-50 with the initials GG. Not enough of the bowl survives to see if it was decorated. GG pipes of this type are relatively common in the Portsmouth Harbour area and this example may well be from there (cf Fox & Hall 1979, Figs 117-9).
EH or FH There is one untrimmed heel dating from c1800-1850 with the initials EH or FH (the Christian initial has been damaged when soft). Not enough of the bowl survives to see if it was decorated. EH pipes of this type are relatively common in the Portsmouth Harbour area and this example may well be from there (cf Fox & Hall 1979, Figs 41-4).
WS There is one spur fragment from c1820-50 with the initials WS, which was made by William Swinyard of Guildford, who was working from c1815-58 (Higgins 1981, 240). Not enough of the bowl survives to see if it was decorated.
oo There is one spur fragment from c1820-80 with a symbol mark in the form of a small and slightly serrated circle on each side of the spur. Not enough of the bowl survives to see if it had any decoration. This was a common symbol mark used by many different manufacturers.
Moulded Stem Marks There are seven stems with relief moulded marks on them. Three of these come from the Portsmouth Harbour area (one by Coster and two by Goodall) and three were probably made by William Swinyard of Guildford. The last piece is unidentified. The marks are as follows: -
/COSTER Two identical stem fragments dating from c1820-50 have the name COSTER on the left side (Figure 12) and a foliage design and dots on the right side. Both are broken so it can??t be seen if there was any Christian name or initial before the surname. There were various members of this family working in the Portsmouth Harbour area at this time (Fox & Hall, 1979).
GOSPORT / [R] GOODALL This name occurs in a rope like border on a pipe with a small acorn as a bowl. The bowl itself is missing, as is the Christian name initial, but it would have been ??R?? and had a larger acorn for a bowl, as illustrated by Fox & Hall (1979, Fig 122). Richard Goodall is recorded working in directories from at least 1841-67 (Fox & Hall 1979, 21).
???D MAKER / GUILO?/ One stem of c1820-50 has this faint inscription surrounded by dots and leaves. The ??D?? is unclear and one letter looks like an ??O??, but this is almost certainly a part of a stem reading SWINYARD MAKER / GUILDFORD.
WI/ /Y Stem fragment with scales and other decoration and part of an inscription that would have read WILLIAM SWINYARD / GUILDFORD SURRY (sic) originally. The arrangement of the lettering and decorative motifs is the same as that shown on a Turk??s head pipe from Guildford (Higgins 1981, Fig 9.1) and the Farnham fragment may be another example of this design, which dates from c1820-50.
??D / / G?? A small fragment with cross hatched lines making diamonds that contain these letters was found (Figure 13). The letters are also flanked by dots and this is almost certainly another SWINYARD / GUILDFORD design of c1820-50.
/RICHA/ A small stem fragment of stem of c1820-60 has this lettering on one side ?? the other appears to be plain (Figure 14). The lettering is not bordered or associated with any other decoration and presumably represents part of a Christian name. Maker unidentified.
Mouthpieces. There are 21 mouthpieces in total, plus two stems that are just opening out into mouthpieces. | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Williams, David W - Portable Antiquities Scheme | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
|
|