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THE CLAY TOBACCO-PIPE IN BRITAIN
LIST OF MAKER'S NAMES AND INITIALS
This list includes many of the principal makers who are likely
to have marked their pipes, but there were many others who were
either established too late to have adopted the practice of marking
initials on pipes, or too minor and ephemeral to be considered
here, or whose names have not yet been discovered by research
into old records. An attempt has been made to include every
known maker in Essex and East Anglia.
In the nineteenth century there were pipemakers in nearly
every small town, for example, there were four pipemakers in
Ipswich, four in Colchester, and two in Beccles, Suffolk, at the
mid-century, but few among these initialled their pipes: by this
time, it was more often the publican's, or maker's, name which
appeared in full on the stem.
The Broseley makers were so numerous (nearly 100 are known)
and their family relationships so complicated, that a selection only
can be given in so brief an account as this: all principal Broseley
pipe-making families have been included, however.
The previous warning must be repeated that initialled pipes
could be of Dutch or other foreign origin—their shape and other
considerations should be used as checks. A list of Dutch markings
is available in the Bragg Collection in the British Museum, and
many of the initials are unfortunately identical with those of
makers in this country.
In reading early initials, it is well to remember that in the 17th
and early 18th centuries, the initial 'J' was of the same form and
indistinguishable from 'I', and 'U' was indistinguishable from 'V.
Finally, do not suppose that CR and a crown, or IR and a crown
necessarily indicate that the pipe so marked was made for the
Stuart Court: makers using these initials, sometimes crowned, are
known in the seventeenth century, and the. use of the crown was
widespread in loyal designs.
Early Pipemakers (prior to 1620)
W.B. (Will. BATCHELOR, London, 1580-1620)
I.R. (John ROGERS, London, 1620)
B.B. (Benj. BERRIMAN, Bristol, c 1615—very rare)
1620-1640
J.C. and T.C. (CLARKE of Broseley)
1640-1660
E.C. (Stepney): N.H.: S.W. (London): I.W.: E.E. (Chester): AL.
(Chester)
R.L. and AL. (LEGG of Broseley)
W.C.: I.F.: F.H.: I.H.: R.N. (all five of Bristol)
R.H. (1658, Blythburgh)
1660-1680
I.B. and CR. (Newcastle): I.C. (Hull)
I.C. and J.D. (York): T.C. (Gloucester)
T.L.: T.R.: E.L. (all three of Bristol)