THE DATING OF CLAY-PIPES 21
While this simple sequence may serve as a rough guide to
place any individual pipe in its correct half-century, bearing in
mind the relative scarcity of mid-eighteenth century pipes,
in the heyday of snufftaking, say from 1735 to 1780, we can do
better than this for most patterns likely to be found. In order
to understand the key that follows on pages 23-27, figure 5
may help to indicate the exact meaning of the terms used for the
several parts of a pipe, and to show the likely variations of form.