- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Tobacco pipe with a long narrow wooden stem, sheathed in tin and bound with plant fibre [.2], set into a black pottery bowl [.1] [RTS 19/10/2004].
- Long description
- Pipe for smoking tobacco, consisting of a long tin mouthpiece on wooden stem, 1925.14.13.2 and separate pottery bowl, 1925.14.13.1. The mouthpiece has been made from a sheet of metallic gray tin (Pantone 423C) rolled into a hollow cylinder with narrow mouth and a body that gradually widens towards its base. This has been fitted over a wooden pipe stem, made from soft wood with reddish brown exterior surface (Pantone 469C) and a pale yellow pith (Pantone 7507C), with a narrow hole bored through its length [.2]. A broad strip of reddish brown plant fibre, possibly bark or bast, has been wrapped around the stem just below this mouthpiece (Pantone 730C), presumably to create a tighter fit between wooden stem and ceramic bowl. The tip of the stem has been burnt black, presumably from contact with burning tobacco in the latter. The pipe bowl, 1925.14.13.1, has been hand made from a well levigated clay with gold-coloured mica inclusions, fired a dark brown to black throughout (Pantone black 7C) and burnished over the exterior surface. This consists of a short cylindrical upper body with flat top, joined to the side of a globular bowl with convex sides and base, with only a narrow hole connecting the two parts. The upper part of the bowl itself appears to be damaged, with the outer surface lost and an irregular holemouth rim edge that may not be original. The area just below the rim is decorated with the remnants of a band of short vertical incised lines. The stem section appears to be complete, and the bowl piece is nearly complete. Together, stem and bowl have a total weight of 68.8 grams, and a total length of 311 mm. The stem section weighs 8.8 grams and is 273 mm long, with the mouthpiece having a length of 226 mm, an opening 2 mm across, and a maximum width at its base of 10 mm; the wooden stem is 8.2 mm wide and 8 mm thick, with a base opening of 2 mm across; the pottery bowl weighs 60 grams, and 65.5 is mm long, with a top diameter of 20.4 mm and a top opening of 10 mm across; the bowl body measures 41.5 mm in diameter, while the current rim diameter is 28 mm [RTS 19/10/2004].
- Cultural groups
- Lango
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1925
- Date collected
- By 1925
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1925
- Materials and processes
- Material Tin Metal, Material Wood Plant, Material Plant Fibre, Material Pottery, Material Bast Fibre Bark Plant, Process Hammered, Process Bent, Process Socketed, Process Wound, Process Handbuilt, Process Fire-Hardened, Process Burnished
- Dimensions
- Length 311 mm total, Diameter: max 10 mm, Diameter: max 28 mm, Length 65.5 mm, Length 226 mm, Weight 8.8 g, Weight 68.8 g
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1925.14.13.1 Accession number: 1925.14.13.2
- Research and responses
Driberg discusses pottery manufacture amongst the Lango: "Pottery is not confined to a manufacturing class, but pots are made by the males of the family as required, the women fetching the clay (dagi) from the riverbeds ... The clay is used unmixed, and the smaller pots are moulded by hand from the lump. In the case of the larger pots the base is moulded and the pot is gradually built up by successive strips of clay. When it is finished the pot is left for three or four days until quite dry, and then thickly wrapped in grass, which is fired from the base upwards. While the pot is still damp a small piece of stick (aked or agor) about one and a half inches long and spirally fretted is rolled over it to impress such patterns as the maker may choose, and the inside of the pot is gently smoothed with a calabash scraper called akwaya... Clay pipes are very roughly made, as they are only used by old men" (J.H. Driberg, 1923, The Lango, p. 88).
It seems to be quite common to find mica mixed in with Sudanese clays. Schweinfurth noted this was the case for Bongo pottery, which he suggested made their wares very brittle; he believed this mix to be naturally occurring and that the Bongo potters did not know how to remove it from their fabrics (G. Schweinfurth, 1873, In the Heart of Africa Volume I, p. 292). The statement that Lango potters used clay 'unmixed' suggests that the mica was naturally occurring in this case [RTS 30/8/2005].
Search terms: Narcotic, Pottery, Pipe, Tobacco Accessory