French chic?

Hungate has produced this very unusual clay pipe bowl in the form of a woman’s head. She is a lady of, shall we say, character; and our clay pipe specialist, Dr Susie White from Liverpool University had this to say about her:

"The pipe is French and was made in a three-piece mould, as opposed to a two-piece mould which are mostly what were used by the British firms. A mould line can be clearly seen running down the side of the face. It is decorated with colored enamels, now much abraded, to pick out certain features, such as the eyes, and elements on the bonnet. Some of these pipes are real masterpieces, and although this lady is not exactly an oil painting, you could be kind and say that the pipe is a 'fine example of its type'.

The French manufacturers specialized in this kind of ornate figural pipe from about the 1830s right up until the 1920s and had agents in this country to sell them. By the 1920s most of the French firms had closed down.  This one from Hungate is likely to be an early example, and probably dates from sometime in the 1830s or 1840s. Originally it would have had a clay stem, although a lot of these French pipes were socketed for use with a bakelite type stem. "

This pipe is just one from the most recent group of pipes which have been sent to Liverpool for study. Watch this space for more as Hungate is producing hundreds of examples, some very ornate indeed.