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Pipe Stoppers (Tampers)When smoking a pipe it is necessary to have something that can be used, as required, to compress the tobacco so as to maintain the correct density for effective smoking. The tool used for this was referred to in English as a ‘stopper’ from the early seventeenth century onwards, even though some recent authors, especially from America and the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), now refer to these objects as ‘tampers’. The precise origin and form of the earliest stoppers is uncertain and the subject has been very little researched by modern academics. Several nineteenth to mid-twentieth century notes on the subject focussed on stoppers purely from a collectors or art historical point of view, with little regard for establishing the typology, chronology or distribution patterns of the various types. Even when more recent studies have been undertaken, the work has been hampered by the small number of extant examples in museum collections (Forsyth 1992, 35) and the fact that very few examples made before 1750 are securely dated (Leslie 2012, 7). As a result, many stoppers can only be dated by general analogy and examples on the PAS database (https://finds.org.uk/) have been given wide (and often differing) date ranges in the absence of closely dated parallels. Stoppers were certainly being produced by the 1620s and varied from elaborate and high quality pieces made of precious metals to simple home-made examples or improvised items, such as a piece of broken pipe stem (“as any Gentlemen can make Tobacco-Stoppers at a Coffee-House, by breaking of whole Pipes”; Hodges 1694, 11). Stoppers were made in a bewildering variety of materials and forms, although the surviving examples are biased towards ‘special’ rather than ‘everyday’ examples so that, for example, wooden stoppers are almost certainly underrepresented. By far the most extensive corpus of antique examples is that illustrated by Leslie in his 2012 book on stoppers. Contemporary production of stoppers continues in a wide range of materials, including examples made of pipe clay by Eric Ayto in the 1970s and 1980s and by Rex Key in the early twenty-first century. The archive holds several notes and articles on stoppers that may be of use to researchers, the most relevant of which can be accessed via the selected list of sources below. Archaeological finds of metal tampers from England and Wales are continually being updated on the PAS website (https://finds.org.uk/). Selected sources dealing with or containing references to stoppers: Bowling, P., 2002, Recasting the Past, Pipes & Tobaccos, Spring, Vol. 7, No. 1, 36-40. Fresco-Corbu, R., 1961, ‘Stoppers for the Pipe Smoker’, Country Life (8 June), 1343-1345. Higgins, D. A., 2007, ‘Clay Tobacco Pipes and Related Objects: Post-Medieval’ in D. Griffiths, R. A. Philpott, G. Egan et al, Meols, The Archaeology of the North Wirral Coast: Discoveries and Observations in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, with a Catalogue of Collections, Oxford University School of Archaeology: Monograph 68, 263-79 (498pp plus plates). [one archaeological find described] Hodges, W, 1694, An Humble Representation of the Seamens Misery . . ., 12pp. [passing reference only] Leslie, A., 2012, 300 Years of Tobacco Stoppers – Fine Works of Art in Miniature, privately published. Lewis, L., 1978, ‘A Pair of Seventeenth-Century Iron Smoker’s Tongs’, The Antiquaries Journal, 58 (Part II), 380. MacKay, J., 1970, ‘Collecting Wisely: Tobacco Stoppers’, Financial Times (26 September). Rapaport, B., 1977, ‘Bibelots of Tobacco: Pipe Tampers, Alias Stoppers’, The Antique Trader Weekly, March 23. Rapaport, B., 2002, ‘Tampering With The Facts’, Pipes & Tobaccos, Spring, Vol. 7, No. 1, 30-34. Scott, A. and C., 1981, Smoking Antiques, Shire Album 66, 32pp. Stuckey, D. and Evan-Hart, J., 1999, ‘Field Test: Lorenz Pulse 5, Part 2’, Treasure Hunting (September), 42-45. [passing inclusion of one ring stopper] Taylor, J., 1649, John Taylors Wandering, to See the Wonders of the West, 21pp. [passing reference only]
Dr D. A. Higgins
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Smoking RelatedPipe Stoppers (Tampers)
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