Tobacco Drinking

The Indian habit of pipe smoking was very fashionable in England by the 1570's, and it was not just a men's habit. Women, and even children, enjoyed the pleasures of the imported "Indian Weed" and women even smoked in public. English women were not the only ones enjoying the pleasures of pipe smoking, Dutch and French women also took up "tobacco drinking" - as in drinking in the smoke.

William Harrison's "Great Chronologie" from 1588 describes the early clay pipe as a "little ladell" or spoon shape. Late sixteenth century pipes were short stemmed, no longer than 1 3/4 inches and made of very delicate white clay. It may have been more appropriately named tobacco sipping since tobacco was very much a luxury item and the pipe bowl was only 1/4 inch in diameter. The Dutch were able to create a stronger clay body and by the seventeenth-century Holland was the major manufacturer of clay pipes and pipe stems had lengthened to 4 -6 inches long. Towards the end of the seventeenth century the pipe bowl was enlarged and the pipe stem lengthened to 11-12 inces. In the second half of the eighteenth-century the stems increased to two feet or more in length and earned the nineteenth-century nickname "churchwardens."

The discovery of so many pipe fragments at historic sites led people to believe that tavern pipe smokers shared a pipe in the Indian fashion by breaking off the end of the stem before passing it to the next person. Mr. Ivor Noel Hume, Colonial Williamsburg archeologist and social historian, believes there is no evidence to support this idea; the real reason is simply clay pipes were fragile and easily broken - making them the first disposable commodity. The end of the stem was tapered to fit the mouth, so if the end were broken off it would not be as comfortable to smoke. However, there is evidence that the pipes were placed in iron cradles and heated in bake ovens to cleanse them for the next round of smokers and also clear out the tar and resins. Fortunately clay pipes were inexpensive to replace. In 1709 a gross of pipes (that is 144 pipes) could be purchased for 2 shillings or $16 in today's currency.

The top tavern pipe in the photo was purchased from Colonial Williamsburg. It was made by the Williamsburg Pottery in Lightfoot, Virginia and is typical of a mid eighteenth-century tavern pipe. The stem is 16 inches long (with a broken tip already) and the bowl is 1 3/4 inches high and 3/4 inches in diameter. The heel on the bottom of the bowl assists the pipe maker in fashioning the bowl. The bottom pipe was found a couple of years ago along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. The Virginia State archeologist suspects a long forgotten barrel broke open somewhere because he had numerous calls about finding the same pipe on bay beaches around the same time. The bowl is the same size as the Colonial Williamsburg pipe, but the stem in only 4 inches long, either by design or from rolling around in the waves.

When temperately used, there is not in all the world a medicine comparable to tobacco. All of tobacco is wholesome. William Barclay: Nepenthes; or, The Virtues of Tobacco, 1614.