Mudlarking

Today while I was in London, I went mudlarking for a bit. Mudlarking is the riverside version of beachcombing. I walked along the rocks at the South Bank while the Thames was low. I found these two interesting clay pipes.

I haven't found a good method to date the clay pipes which have no maker's mark. The top pipe should be easier to date since it has a rather nice ship decoration on one side and a seahorse-looking thing on the other. The closest I can find so far is this site which shows pipes with rounded bowls rather than a point.




Some clay pipe-related articles:

A history of clay pipes.
A story from the Boston Globe about mudlarking along the Thames.

A Colonial Williamsburg article on clay pipes.

Clay tobacco pipe makers' marks from the Museum of London.

Some German clay pipe designs.

Cataloguing of pipes - from the German Society for Clay Pipe Research.

Interesting image on dating clay pipes from this Swedish site.