Ralf Kluttig-Altmann:
Clay pipe finds in the southern Baltic Sea area and in Silesia - First results of an international exhibition in the Ostpreußischen Landesmuseum Lüneburg

On the occasion of the 18th conference of the Arbeitskreis Tonpfeifen in 2004 at the Ostpreußischen Landesmuseum Lüneburg the exhibition "Tobacco and clay pipes in the southern Baltic Sea area and in Silesia" was also opened. Both exhibition and conference aimed at making a transnational overview possible and activating further common research. From the investigation of the numerous local and foreign exhibition objects, first tendencies of the clay pipe use in these regions could be worked out.
Both in the Baltic Sea area and in Silesia we are dealing with very different discovery sites: former locations of large clay pipe manufactories (Rostin, Sborovsky), cities with a certain portion of "improved" pipes in the form of subsequent glazing (Lüneburg, Warsaw) and pure import cities (Elblag, Tartu, Klaipéda, Wroclaw). Thereby, beside many products of the Prussian manufactories already specified, a portion of English and/or Scottish pipes based on active maritime trade distinguishes the consumption places of north Poland and the Baltic area. Further south, in Warsaw and Wroclaw, the former ottoman influence becomes clear in the form of very various stub-stemmed pipe-bowls ("Gesteckpfeifenköpfen"). All of this - beside particularly in the 17th century pervasive Netherlands imported goods - are characteristics, which differentiate the find landscape of Poland and the Baltic clearly from that of Germany as well as of Lüneburg. This first estimate will hopefully get supplemented in the future by new find reports and knowledge, so that the picture of clay pipe production and pipe trade in the southern Baltic Sea area and in Silesia loses many of its question marks.

Fig. 1: Clay-pipe bowls and stems, 2nd half 18th century,
made in Sborovsky (Zborowsky), Poland, and found in Breslau (Wroclaw).

AFig. 2: Pipe bowls, 2nd and 3rd quarters 17th century, found at Breslau (Wroclaw).
The bowl and stem were made separately and fixed together by hand before firing.
Glazed and unglazed varieties.

Malgorzata Jaszczuk-Surma:
Tobacco and snufftobacco in the light of Polish medical councellors in the 18th century

Tobacco arrived in two ways to Poland: a western from England and Spain and an eastern from Turkey. The plant just like tobacco smoking spread rapidly in the 17th century in all layers of the population. Special attention however has been given until far in the 18th century to the medical use, as can be stated on the basis of numerous medical councellors. Tobacco was expected to be of special help against the plague as well as protect from infection and also cure.

Katarzyna Meyza:
Clay pipe import from west and eastern Europe before 1720 in Warsaw

In short after 1704 filled cellars of the royal castle in Warsaw 121 fragments were found of white western European clay pipes and 17 stub-stemmed pipe-bowls of southeast European origin. While the white clay pipes correspond nearly completely the typical Netherlands pipes of the second half of the 17th and of the early 18th centuries, the stub-stemmed pipe-bowls cannot so far be dated. Also their production place remains for the time being still unknown.

Fig.: Stub-stemmed pipes found in rubble and earth
used to fill the cellar beneath the Royal Theatre in the Castle, Warsaw.

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Wojciech Siwiak:
Finds of Prussian pipes in Poland on the basis of published materials. An outline of the research issue

The scientific occupation with clay pipes goes back in Poland into the years 1950; the interest of the archaeologists however remained nevertheless small. This is surprising, because pipes can be the best chronological dating criterion for cultural settlement layers of the modern times.
To emphasize are the investigations over the urban Prussian centers of the 18th and 19th centuries lain today in Poland. Prominent archaeological researchers, who worked over the Prussian manufactories (Rostin and Sborovsky), were however limited to the examination of the waste dumps without being able to proceed to regular excavations. Finds from some Polish consumption places were already published, among other things from Kolobrzeg/Kolberg, Gdansk/Danzig, Bydgoszcz/Bromberg, Torun/Thorn and Poznan/Posen, but numerous finds still await their treatment.

Fig.: 17th century Dutch clay pipes
found in a wreck in the Gulf of Danzig (Gdansk).

Teresa Witkowska:
The trade of Rostiner clay pipes as shown by archaeological finds

The clay pipe factory in Rostin/Roscin in the Neumark was established around 1753 by the local landowner Colonel von Bredow. He used the deposits of clay, which were in the proximity. The annual production amounted to approx. 10.000 to 12.000 grosses of clay pipes, which were sold in Prussia and exported to Poland. Since 1775 Isaak Salingre, a tradesman from Stettin/Szczecin, was the owner of the clay pipe factory in Rostin. By the sea route he dispatched the pipes together with the tobacco goods produced in his factory of Stettin to the Baltic Sea ports.
The pipes saved through archaeological excavations and by private collectors from Rostin show the huge distribution area. Finds have been published from the ports Kolobrzeg/Kolberg, Klaipéda/Memel, Gdansk/Danzig as well as Hamburg and Lübeck and also from some large Polish cities such as Bydgoszcz/Bromberg, Torun/Thorn, Poznan/Posen and Warsaw.

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Fig.: Plan of the Rostin (Rostin) clay-pipe factory;
the actual production probably took place in the castle.

Martin Kügler:
The workers of the clay pipe manufactory in Rostin - possibilities of an analysis

The listing of the workers employed in the manufactory was already published in 1936 but is provided here with supplementing data again. Newer researchs make it possible to identify numerous immigrants from south Lower Saxony and North Hesse (Grossalmerode, Hameln, Uslar, Helmstedt or Walbeck) as also from the Westerwald. Over the origin of the workers and the labour organization in the manufactory close borders are nevertheless set to an investigation. It is however recognizable that an immigration of foreign pipe bakers happened, but with no Dutchmen.

Ilze Reinfelde:
Clay pipe finds in Riga. A first overview

In the archaeological find material of Riga there are 1500 pipe bowls and 13.516 stem fragments. The absence of written like archaeological information about a local pipe production permits only the conclusion that all pipes were imported. The mass import of tobacco to Riga is documented since the middle of the 17th century. The main importing country for tobacco were the Netherlands.
The investigation of the pipe material from Riga showed that the earliest pipes date from the beginning of the 17th century. Their number is however still small. Since approximately the second quarter of the 17th century one can speak of a mass import. On the other hand the use of pipes seems to decrease in the 18th and 19th centuries. Most of the pipes of the 17th century originate from the Netherlands, only a few from England. In the 18th and 19th centuries the portion of the Netherlands is reduced in favor of the imported goods from England and particularly from Prussia.

Fig. 1: 17th century Sir Walter Raleigh pipe of Dutch origin, found in Riga, Latvia.

Agne Civilyte/Linas Kvizikevicius/Saulius Sarcevicius:
A pipemakery of the 17th/18th century at Vilnius

Excavations at Vilnius/Wilna showed a surprising result. Not only many stub-stemmed pipe-bowls made of red firing clay had been found, but also many glazed examples and kiln furniture. It seems to be clear that the first pipemakery at Lithuania and also of the whole Baltic area documented by archaeological facts is found. The pipemakery can be dated around 1700. There is the hope, that the pipekiln can be found during further excavations in 2005.

Fig. 1: Fragment of a stand (kiln furniture) for firing glazed pipes,
found in Vilnius (Vilno), Lithuania.

Fig. 2: Glazed and unglazed pipe bowls from Vilnius (Vilno), Lithuania.

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Fig.: Pipes found in the Holy Barbara Cemetery, Tallinn, Estonia.

Erki Russow:
Clay pipes from Tallinn

For the first time finds can be introduced from Estland, discovered different places of the capital Tallinn in the last years. They show that in the early 17th century the spreading of clay pipes originating from the first half of the century was very modest. The number of pipes increases drastically starting from the third third of the 17th century.
In the 18th century surprisingly few pipes of English, Swedish, German or Polish origin are observed; on the contrary a large quantity of pipe bowls of unknown origin prevail. It seems to be characteristic of the Baltic countries that there was no local clay pipe industry, or that one concentrated on products made from local raw material like red earth and wood. As far as we know, no classical white clay pipes were manufactured here, although appropriate raw material was imported. The find complexes of the 18th century in Tallinn differ clearly from those of other regions of the Baltic Sea as of Scandinavia, Northern Germany and Poland.

Gábor Tomka:
The archaeological study of the clay pipes in Hungary - A short overview

Pipe smoking has spread in the area of today's Hungary at the turn from 16th to 17th century. By the ottoman occupation of large parts of the country pipes are only rarely found from the Western European type. The historians were first occupied with the early epochs of pipe smoking, and the folklorists were interessed by the pipe production of the 19th and 20th centuries. Apart from Slowakian research in Bánska Stiavnica/Schemnitz Hungarian researchers have published over the clay pipe center of Debrecen in the Hungarian lowlands. Hungary was in the 19th and early 20th centuries also one of the most important countries for the carving sea foam pipes.
In the years 1960 and 1970, when many architectural monuments were restored and many castles investigated, the Hungarian archaeologists regrettably showed very few interest to clay pipes, but in 1963 a fundamental typology appeared. In the years 1980 and 1990 excavation reports announced new finds. In the years 2000/2001 an exhibition over the history of the Hungarian clay pipes was compiled by Anna Ridovics and Edit Haider. The lion's share of the work is still ahead. A multiplicity of unpublished Turkish and Hungarian clay pipes hide in museum depots.

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Fig. 1: Pipe-smoking western soldiers;
detail from a picture of the Battle of Slankamen (1861).

Martin Kügler:
New sources for clay pipe production in Celle

The privileges of 1712 for the pipe making of Johann Heinrich Boenckemeyer in Celle stand in close relationship with the regulations over the clay pipe trade in the Principality of Lueneburg in 1713. The state secured itself the incomes from the import of Netherlands clay pipes, and on the other hand it protected the domestic "manufacturer", whose enterprise promised to throw off a stately profit. The calculations of the manufacturing costs indicated in the sources and the nationally prescribed prices show however that these considerations would have been realizable only with complete enforcement of the Boenckemeyer monopoly and appropriate very high sales. Even if so far articles are missing over the further fate of the Celler manufactory after 1714, it must be assumed that the described problems from the start time could not be solved.
It is therefore characteristic that the manufactory stopped its activity with the death of Boenckemeyers in 1722 and that the mercantile dreams of the government did not come through. Nevertheless that contributed here as in numerous other sections of the producing trade applied system of privilege and protecting commercial regulations to partly adjust the market. This again is of importance for the interpretation of clay pipe finds in the area of the former Principality of Lüneburg and can help to explain the distribution of clay pipes from Celle, from other German production places and from the Netherlands within a find complex.

Bernd Standke:
A clay pipe find in Halle

With the finds in Halle the regional spreading net is extended of clay pipes whose production took place on an unusual and independent way. Instead of being formed out in a processing step bowl and stem were manufactured separately and then assembled in still raw condition. This clay pipe material constitutes about 75 percent of the available finds and supplements the groups of finds at other places of Saxonia and Silesia. The fragments do not exhibit any glaze. To the largest part they come from smoked pipes. A further common feature connects all find complexes - it is the question about the manufacturers, which except for one exception is unanswered and about the production place, which is assumed in the east Saxonian area.
The recent material contains very few fragments of clearly Netherlands origin. The production of clay pipes in Halle is attested by a heel stamp, which shows the coat of arms of the city. A stem label refers to the Principality of Anhalt, Halle or Bitterfeld come possibly also in consideration for the production.

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Fig.: 17th century clay pipes from Halle.

Fig. 1. Resolution adopted by the pipemakers' guild to admit Johann Willes as journeyman pipemaker, dated 13 Jan. 1777.

Ralf Kluttig-Altmann/Martin Kügler:
International Terminology of clay pipe research
Part IV: Polish-German

The necessity for a Polish-German word list for clay pipe research is urgent in view of the intensive contacts of Polish and German archaeologists and the close historical connections. The two most important Prussian pipe manufactories of the 18th century are indeed located in Rostin (Roscin) in the Neumark and Sborovsky (Zborowskie) in Upper Silesia, today in Poland. Their products emerge at numerous places of Germany and Poland as also in the east bordering Baltic states and their interpretation are not possible without crossing the language barrier.

Ralf Kluttig-Altmann/Martin Kügler:
International Terminology of clay pipe research.
Part V: Hungarian-German

Unnoticed by the Western European research - not least because of the language problems - rather many finds were published in Hungary in the last years. Besides there was an intensive clay pipe production in Hungary, whereby it concerns bowls of stub-stemmed pipe-bowls. Like recent research in Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia, Poland, Austria and South Germany show, Hungarian clay pipes were negotiated into these countries and are to find in archaeological complexes. The knowledge of the Hungarian literature and of its special terms is important therefore for large international comparisons as for the diffusion of the research results abroad.

New Finds

Rüdiger Articus:
Claypipes in fine arts

Still-life and genre paintings contain an abundance of information on the history of tobacco consumption, particularly smoking. These paintings provide a true-to-life documentation of the different forms of tobacco, i.e. roll or spun tobacco and letter tobacco, as well as methods of preparing tobacco, filling a pipe, and smoking. Numerous paintings of this kind were on show in an exhibition in Hamburg entitled "A life of pleasure - secret desires 2004".

Carsten Spindler:
Clay-pipe finds in "faecal" fields near Brunswick (Braunschweig)

Refuse and sewage from the streets and cesspits of Braunschweig, containing numerous clay-pipe fragments, were disposed of by spreading on the surrounding fields. Finds of clay pipes and a variety of objects document a lively trade in pipes and other articles during the last few centuries. It is remarkable that imported clay pipes represented strong competition for pipes made in the region. We see from this study that even finds made during field-walking can contribute towards our knowledge of historical commodity markets and trade routes.

Brigitte Fettinger:
Claypipes from the ruins Alt-Scharnstein, Upper Austria

The spectrum of finds consists almost exclusively of 17th century clay pipes of Austrian and Southern-German provenance; there is a total absence (with one single exception) of Dutch imports. Since these are random finds, it is difficult to reconstruct a satisfactory time sequence in which the history of the locality itself can be incorporated. Comparison with other finds of clay pipes from Austria and Bavaria, however, demonstrate a close relationship with the Alt-Scharnstein material, even with respect to "exotic" forms such as the "boot-pipes", which occur in a surprisingly wide variety at Alt-Scharnstein. It is hoped that production centres will soon be discovered in Austria and Bavaria so that basic problems concerning trade in and consumption of clay pipes can be solved.

Fig.: Clay-pipe finds from the Alt-Scharnstein castle ruins.

Thomas Weitzel:
Claypipes from the magazine of the East Friesian State Museum in Emden

The clay pipes show a clear predominance of Dutch imports, which in some cases can be accurately dated. There are no pipes that show even a suggestion that they are products of German pipemakers. The provenance of a heel-pipe bearing the coat of arms of Emden is as yet an unsolved problem - it is unlikely that it was made in Emden itself.

Fig.: Imported Dutch clay pipes and a pipe bearing the coat of arms of Emden.

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Ursel Beck/Gudrun Heinssen-Levens:
Haithabu-Claypipes. Field-walking finds from the settlement-area inside the surrounding dam

Clay-pipe fragments were collected from the fields within the Viking rampart of Haithabu between 1967 and 1970. The wide variety is reflected in the list of finds.

Fig. 1: Jakobspfeife, mid 19th century.

However, the pipes provide a clue as to the variety that might be found in the future. Some of the pipes originate from the near vicinity, e.g. from Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie or Palamos, Spain; but most have a more distant provenance such as the Netherlands, Saint Omer or Givet. Thus the pipes provide less information about the smoking habits of the inmates of the fort than about the markets of the relevant pipemakers.

Fig. 2: Pipe bowl from Palamos, first half 19th century.

Jason Pickin:
Imported and local produced claypipes from the excavation "Stevens and Smith" in Lancaster/Pennsylvania (USA)

Although the quantity of clay pipes excavated is small, the phases of clay-pipe history are documented and range from the white clay pipes imported from Europe to the locally produced Pamplin pipe, a briar pipe, and the two glass pipes (tubes) which might have been used for smoking drugs. The number of finds is remarkably small considering the fact that an inn once stood on this site.

Fig. 2: Green-glazed pipes from Germany (?), early 19th century.

Fig. 1: View of the excavation.

André Dehaybe:
The pipe of a prisoner of war

A small briar pipe, about 20 cm long, is engraved with "HELMSTADT" and "1940", a clover leaf with the initials "L Y M", and a padlock and chain. This pipe probably belonged to a French prisoner-of-war. After the war, his pipe served as a reminder of hard times, before it found its way into a private collection. (www.tabacollector.com)

Fig.: Engraved briar pipe.

Arne Åkerhagen:
A claypipe with Hakenkreuz

The pipe is made of beige-orange-firing clay and has a colourless glaze. A snake coils round the pipe bowl, which is shaped like a tree trunk. On the front of the bowl is a swastika on a white ground, partly surrounded by red coloration. The pipe is said to have been produced in considerable quantities and given to deserving Nazi soldiers. However, the exact reason why the pipe was produced is still unclear.

Fig: Nazi pipe

Fig. 1.: Plague pipe with feet,
Bellinzona, shortly after 1700.

Fig. 2.: Plague pipe with loop, dated "1723".

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Fig.: Pipe stem from Sborovsky.

Bernd Kramer:
"You lovely amusement of my solitude …" - Enjoyment of tobacco at the beginning of the 18th century

The poet Christian Friedrich Hunold (1680-1721), who became well known under the pseudonym "Menantes", was a passionate pipe smoker. He praises tobacco and the clay pipe several times in his poems. In his birthplace, Wandersleben in Thuringia, a group of interested people have spent several years researching his life and work ensuring that he receives the recognition he deserves.

Fig.: Christian Friedrich Hunold (1680-1721).