Gardening Again And Found French Clay Pipe

I recently found this which turned out to be the remains of a French clay pipe, more than 100 years old. When I initially saw it in the ground I thought that it was possibly a broken off spout from a tea pot but after cleaning some of the dirt away I realised that it is, in fact, the remains of a clay pipe. After a further clean up and looking online I figured that the maker, marked on the side, is L. Fiolet, St. Omer, France. It is also marked as No.564

Due to the skull and cross bones marking on the side I suspect that originally the pipe was in the design of a skulls head although I haven't been able to find another No.564 to cross reference it with.

Pretty cool, you need to fully excavate your backyard. Watch out for unexploded ordnance, LOL. You're only scratching the surface gardening.

I don't remember finding anything interesting at my house. I've found things at clients houses on occassion and they usually let me keep them. Indian Head penny, very old toy car and a rusty license plate from the 1930's are the top three.

Fill yer boots - er, bowl here: Amsterdam Pipe Museum - Collection

Clearly a vast subject in itself, like so many other fields of collecting. It was an enjoyable rabbit hole for 10 minutes there! ;)

Style looks at a glance to be first half of 19th C. The death's head motif needs no explanation, but not health and safety of course. :D

Collection APM 7.378

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Originally Posted by Aragorn243

I don't remember finding anything interesting at my house.

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Perhaps you should invite Rick Savage, the retired wrestler, who digs up people's back yards, the one that shouts out "Boom Baby" when he finds something?

Looking for Civil War Artifacts | American Digger - YouTube

No Civil War artifacts in my yard unfortunately. Closest the war came to my house is about 40 miles.

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Originally Posted by Flying10uk

Collection APM 7.378

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Good one; ' got caught up in the photos and forgot to search for the "No.564". :D So what I took to be the narrow and earlier bowl was actually the socket of the stem. Something more still to find there perhaps?

The eyesockets, nasal passage and teeth appear to be glazed; for appearance? Luminous perhaps?

Easy to imagine some "Mrs." of those days saying, "We'll not have that in the house....!" and out into the garden it went in several pieces!? :lol:

It would be great if you could find the rest.

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Originally Posted by Aragorn243

It would be great if you could find the rest.

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The super glue is at the ready.

I remember once that I found an old decanter bottle half buried on some land that my family use to own. It was minus it's glass stopper and I thought that I'll never find the stopper for it. A couple of days later I was on the land in the same area and I saw something glistening in the sunlight which turned out to be the stopper.

The most unusual thing that has ever been found on my property is a fossilised tropical scorpion which my late father found around 1970, about 2 foot down, while digging a post hole. Presumably someone had brought it back from a foreign trip and then decided that they didn't want it.

Here's a good coverage of the subject: Mudlarking: The Art of Smoking Beachcombing Magazine

What's not made clear is that many of the pipes are clearly too complex to mold as is and must have been carved-shaped by hand, presumably when still damp from the molds.

Clay pipe stems were not very good for the dentition:

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Originally Posted by Surpmil

Clay pipe stems were not very good for the dentition

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I rather think that this particular one would have had a wooden stem inserted into the clay skull end.

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Originally Posted by Flying10uk

I rather think that this particular one would have had a wooden stem inserted into the clay skull end.

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Almost certainly; the tooth wear is merely an interesting and related piece of historical trivia. ;)