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). 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). 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. A RDF representation of MAS-100004 2016-07-28T14:12:59+01:00 2019-01-29T13:01:43+00:00 MAS-100004 MAS-100004 GB en-GB The Trustees of the British Museum The Trustees of the British Museum 1 http://purl.org/NET/Claros/vocab#Thumbnail Attribute as courtesy of the British Museum A thumbnail image of MAS-100004 With finder MAS Created by MAS V L V L Identified by V L L M Identified by L M Ceramic Primary material of object Complete 125. Length 40. Thickness By Attribution 3.0 The period from for the object Attribute as courtesy of the British Museum A full resolution image of MAS-100004 1750 1908 Method of manufacture Classification of object