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THE CLAY TOBACCO-PIPE IN BRITAIN
Another kind of rebus indicates the syllables of a name by
picturing objects having similar-sounding names, as, for instance,
a crossbow-bolt piercing a barrel or tun, to represent BOLTON.
Yet another device is sometimes used to convey a name,
usually of the Inn where the pipe was to be used or sold: thus, a
pipe with a bunch of grapes modelled on the front of the bowl
was found recently in Colchester, where The Grapes Inn still
exists (see fig. 7 (b)), facing page 25.
During the later eighteenth century and most of the nineteenth
centuries, 'brotherly' Orders like the Oddfellows and Buffaloes
flourished'. Pipes specially for their gatherings exhibit on their
bowls some object associated with the organisation or its
symbolism: thus, a 'heart-in-hand' (symbolising Kindness)
indicates an Oddfellows pipe, and the design was usually in the
form of a hand grasping the bowl, the heart lying in the palm.
THE EXTRAVAGANT SHAPES
Other exotic forms were given to pipes, in the extravagance of
the late eighteenth century revival of smoking, which had been
ousted in popularity by its rival habit, snuff-taking, during the
greater part of the eighteenth century. There are two main
varieties of fantastic forms: the very long, coiled stems, sometimes
even up to twelve or fourteen feet in length and often in the form
and colour of snakes, and the Staffordshire figures of monkeys,
ladies and any other fancies which could possibly be fashioned
round a pipe-bowl. The Staffordshire figure-pipes date from 1780
to 1820 or a little later: such a figure as 'Napoleon' is clearly in
the 1810-1820 period. It is difficult to believe that they were ever
really intended to be smoked, and most of them, being of hard-
paste pottery rather than of pipe-clay, are not within the scope
or interest of this book 12, 6.
The same is true of the glazed brown stoneware pipes from
Brampton in E. Derbyshire, but we must include as likely finds
the so-called 'ragged' pipes, with projecting spurs spaced all over
bowl and stem (see fig. 8 (a)), facing page 27, which were made
between 1850 and 1900 by Philip Christian of Liverpool, or occa-
sionally copied at Leeds: they are still being made to-day and are
on sale in tobacconists' shops in East Anglia.
Also in the late eighteenth century, and extending into the
nineteenth, can be included pipes with variegated glazing in
brown, green and yellow, some of which, but not all, were made in
true pipeclay6.
MULTIPLE BOWLS
In 1819 and for a few years following, pipes were made which
had two, three or even four bowls, all joined to a single stem.
These multiple-bowl pipes, when found, usually bear the marks of
having been smoked and there is little doubt that they were made
for use. The bowls are of normal size and the whole design may