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| One of the first European
imports from the newly discovered Americas was tobacco
smoking. A North American Indian concept, "Tobacco
drinking" as it was then known, quickly became
popular as did the demand for clay tobacco pipes. The craft of clay tobacco pipemaking began in the later part of the sixteenth century. The first pipes bore much resemblance to those of the Indians. Through the first two centuries to follow, remnants of spent clay pipes could be seen at every tavern, inn and assenbly hall in the American Colonies. Two white clay pipe bowls ground recovered in the Yorktown Virginia area. One bowl is snapped off at the bowl from it's stem. The other has about one inch of it's stem remaining.The colonial folks would snap off pieces of the pipe stems as the pipe aged to get to the fresher portion on the stem. |
