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CLAY PIPE (SMOKING)
Unique ID: MAS-100004
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Published 
All three white pipes here are complete, and are of the short or 'cutty' form. Two carry relief moulded decoration featuring Masonic emblems (incorporating the crossed compass and square), while the third is in the form of a male head, wearing a thin-brimmed cap, possibly a military figure. Pipes with Masonic emblems were made from the mid-18th century in the UK, but remained popular into the early 20th century, while the male head falls into a group of more elaborate decorative pipes with bowls moulded in the form of human heads and animals, common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Such decorative pipes would have been commonly exported.
Tobacco was grown in West Africa from the 17th century; the inhabitants made their own pipes, the manufacture evolving from that of pottery vessels, but they also imported some through the Atlantic trade (Knight 2010, 67). The inclusion here of the Masonic pipes is of interest; their use was not necessarily confined to Freemasons, but it is likely that they would have been of greater significance to smokers for whom the symbols they bore had meaning (White and Beaudry 2009, 220).
Notes:
These clay pipes were recovered from the wreck Loanda, along with 26 beads recorded as MAS-1F5444. Built in 1891 at Barrow-in-Furness (Cumbria) by the Naval Construction and Armaments Co., Loanda was a two-masted screw-driven steamer owned by the British and African Steam Navigation Co. On 31 May 1908, following a collision with SS Junona, Loanda foundered while under tow 1 mile east of St Margaret's at Cliffe, Kent. At the time of loss, the vessel was bound from Hamburg, Germany, to West Africa with a general cargo. This cargo, which has seen significant recovery by divers, included: clay pipes; bottles of wine and gin; glass beads; perfume bottles; pencils, writing slates and inkpots; lamps; and teacups, lids, dishes, pots, saucers, plates, jugs and eggcups. NRHE and Kent HER reference numbers cited in this record refer to the wreck of Loanda.
Class:
Dress and personal accessories
Sub class: Personal accessory
Subsequent actions
Current location of find: With finder
Subsequent action after recording: Submitted as wreck to the Receiver of Wreck
Wreck details
Droit number: 196/16
Chronology
Broad period: POST MEDIEVAL
Period from: POST MEDIEVAL
Period to: MODERN
Date from: Circa AD 1750
Date to: Exactly AD 1908
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 3
Length: 125 mm
Thickness: 40 mm
Discovery dates
Date(s) of discovery: Tuesday 12th July 2016
Personal details
Found by: This information is restricted for your login.
Recorded by: M F
Identified by: V L
Secondary identifier: L M
Other reference numbers
NRHE monument number: 901835
Other reference: Kent HER Number: TR 34 SE 108; TR 45 NE 256; TR 34 SE 112
Droit ID: 196/16
Materials and construction
Primary material: Ceramic
Manufacture method: Moulded
Decoration style: Other
Completeness: Complete
Spatial coordinates
4 Figure: TR3844
Four figure Latitude: 51.1457526
Four figure longitude: 1.4013985
1:25K map: TR3844
1:10K map: TR34SE
Display four figure position on What3Words
Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
References cited
- Knight, FC, 2010 Working the Diaspora: The impact of African Labor on the Anglo-American world, 1650–1850 New York : University Press, ,
- White, CL and Beaudry, MC, 2009 ' Artifacts and Personal Identity,209–25 , .
- Oswald, A, 1975 Clay Pipes for the Archaeologist Oxford : British Archaeological Reports, ,
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Timeline of associated dates
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