When we think of artisan pipe makers these days, the image conjured is likely of a craftsman painstakingly shaping a block of briar amid a panoramic scene of lathes and belt sanders. The prevailing narrative is that pipe making was largely an industrial process prior to the mid-20th century, when Sixten Ivarsson revolutionized the craft with his attention to briar's natural proclivities in shaping.

The story is accurate as it pertains to the contemporary tradition of artisan pipe making, and today's carvers can trace their artistic lineage and stylistic influence back to Ivarsson and his contemporaries more than anyone else. However, there is an older tradition of artisan pipe making, one that reaches as far back as the written word records and beyond. But before we begin, it will help us to consider what we mean when we refer to "artisan pipe makers." I define an artisan pipe maker as any craftsperson who creates tobacco smoking pipes individually with close attention to the pipe's artistic value, as well as its function.

The pipe's medium, in my estimation, is less important than the creative ethic of its maker. With this in mind, we can identify a number of artisan pipe makers who lived centuries before Ivarsson, but whose skills and methods were unable to survive to the present. Remarkably, researchers have been able not only to name these early artisans but also to recover and preserve their pipes, even identifying their specific techniques. What's more, some of the best-studied artisans of this early period of pipe artistry lived and worked at the dawn of pipe smoking among people of European descent, plying their trade in the early 17th century among the British on North America's east coast, at the very fringes of the known world.

First British Contact with Pipe Crafting

Long before Europeans arrived in the Americas, skilled craftspeople made pipes, many of which were splendid, highly valued, and traded widely in pre-Columbian economies. However, a lack of written sources makes it often near-impossible to attribute ancient pipes to specific individuals. It wouldn't be until the late 16th century that Europeans learned to craft pipes from clay after the fashion of Native North Americans, most notably after Sir Walter Raleigh's 1585 Roanoke expedition. The botanist Carolus Clusius later wrote of that expedition:

Clay pipes were being made in England as early as 1590, according to researchers Taft Kiser and Al Luckenbach, referencing an article by Don H. Duco, making the English among the earliest Europeans to adopt the use and manufacture of tobacco pipes. The pipes were made in the "belly bowl" style, with bulbous bowls that resemble small onions, and were distinct from the more common style of the regions they visited, which was called the "elbow" style and was more angular, with canted, tapered bowls.

... there is an older tradition of artisan pipe making, one that reaches as far back as the written word records and beyond

Both types were invented by Native North Americans, but interestingly, the belly-bowl style is characteristic of communities farther inland from Roanoke, both culturally and linguistically distinct from the Algonqiuan peoples that the English encountered, which speaks to pre-existing trade networks in which well-made pipes were highly valued for their aesthetic and functional qualities. While master pipe makers plied their trade for millennia before the arrival of Europeans, the first artisans that can be positively identified don't enter the historical record until after the genesis of colonialism in America. In addition to those makers whose names we know, there are also a number of artisans whose work survives but have yet to be identified by name. Such work survives from the pre-Columbian period as well, but our focus for this article is on the early Colonial period.

Robert Cotton

Arriving in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1608 and recorded as "Robert Cotton tobacco-pipe-maker," Cotton is the first pipe maker whose name and trade was recorded in what would later become the United States. Cotton was an Englishman by birth and most likely learned his trade in London, where stamps that match his own have been found, dating to between 1580 and 1610, according to an article by Kiser and Luckenbach.

... the English among the earliest Europeans to adopt the use and manufacture of tobacco pipes

Cotton was known only as a name in a registry until a 1994 effort to excavate more of Colonial Jamestown discovered pipes made by him. What's most interesting about Robert Cotton the tobacco-pipe-maker isn't simply that he was the first maker of such instruments to reside in the colonies, but that he developed his own distinct methods and aesthetic, like any true artisan. While pipes were made using molds at the time, studies of Cotton's pipes reveal that he made them without molds — a kind of early freehand technique, if you will.

Cotton's work is also stylistically distinct, combining features of the pre-existing elbow and belly-bowl styles to create a uniquely colonial type of clay pipe, featuring a tapered bowl that somewhat resembles a clay Dublin, often paired with robust octagonal stems that become round toward the mouthpiece. As far as anyone can tell, these features hadn't been previously expressed in such a way, making Cotton's work not only the very earliest example of Anglo-American pipe making, but also some of the most innovative of the period.

Emmanuel Drue and the Bookbinder School

While Robert Cotton was the first pipe maker in the colonies, his output remained small and localized. Most smokers bought cheap pipes imported from England and the Netherlands, as clay pipes were largely considered to be more or less disposable, with the notable exceptions of work like that of Cotton and later Emannuel Drue.

While pipes were made using molds at the time, studies of John Cotton's pipes reveal that he made them without molds

Drue lived and worked in what is now Maryland, with his output dated to between 1650 and his death in 1669. Drue was remarkable: while his main occupation was likely that of tobacco planter (read: plantation owner), he put significant time and effort into making pipes, using what was then the latest equipment and techniques recently introduced from Europe. The site of his workshop is one of the most significant surviving examples of pipe production in the 17th century Chesapeake, due to evidence of his kiln and some molds. Drue was also unique in that he produced different and distinct types of pipes.

Among his primary output were two known variants: a highly decorated elbow style, likely inspired by Native American work, and a mostly unadorned belly style, like the pipes imported from Europe. Additionally, Drue worked with different types of clay within each style, with the elbow pipes and belly bowls made in both red and white clay. Drue is known to have traveled in search of high-quality clay for use in his pipes, which he used to dazzling effect. Some of his surviving work features pipes made from marbled clay, with swirls of red and white all around the bowls and stems, which, while not his invention, as we'll discuss later, were excellent examples of the technique.

Most interesting, however, is the discovery of Drue's wild "Crumm Horn" pipe. The design is based on a similar piece produced in Holland at the time, composed of a fluid, Calabash-like curve from bowl to stem, arcing up and backward to the mouthpiece. Not only is such a shape remarkable for its medium, but it's the most unique pipe to have survived from the entirety of the period and is made with dozens of hand decorations. It's truly a one-of-a-kind pipe, and evidence of deep and innovative artistic sensibility on the part of pipe makers even as far back as the 17th century.

As previously mentioned, Emmanuel Drue wasn't the first Colonial pipe maker to use marbled clay — that honor belongs to the Book Binder. Book Binder is the name used to refer to the maker of a distinct set of pipes defined by the prodigious use of marbling, as well as a singular decorative style made with pressed designs consistent with tools used for decorating book-bindings at the time.

The identity of the maker remains unknown, though surviving examples clearly indicate a single source. The largest concentration of Book Binder pipes is at the Chesopean Site in what is now Virginia Beach, Virginia. There are multiple theories about who Book Binder may have been, though it is broadly accepted that this anonymous artisan was either English or Dutch, as the decorations are consistent with some Dutch tendencies to decorate clay pipes more heavily than the English. One hypothesis is that Book Binder had some connection with the Gookins, a family of Puritan traders who settled in the area after living briefly in Holland before crossing the Atlantic.

Book Binder was unique in using English-style molds to produce Native-style elbow shapes with Dutch-inflected decorative stems, all of which could be explained by a craftsperson who resided in all three regions, as many Puritans who settled Virginia are known to have done. Book Binder is believed to have been active only in the 1640s, when Sarah Offley Thoroughgood Gookin and her second husband, John, whose family had trans-Atlantic commercial ties, lived in the Chesopean settlement. Whoever made these pipes, they proved extremely popular, with examples being discovered throughout the entirety of the Chesapeake region, the largest distribution of any Colonial-era pipe maker.

Emmanuel Drue wasn't the first Colonial pipe maker to use marbled clay — that honor belongs to the Book Binder

Based on the distribution of Book Binder pipes, another theory posits that a second anonymous type of pipe, called the Broadneck, could have been a variant produced by Book Binder, similar to Emmanuel Drue's varied portfolio. Furthermore, a Broadneck pipe was discovered with a stamp of "JD" or "JP." If the second letter is a "D," it could possibly have been made by a Drue, establishing a family connection to explain some of the similarities between Drue's work and that of Book Binder. Pending any unprecedented archaeological finds, however, no definitive answer is likely forthcoming.

Richard Pimmer and Silvanus Gilpin

Potentially the first recorded pipe-making duo in Colonial America, Richard Pimmer and Silvanus Gilpin may have both had a hand in making pipes stamped with Pimmer's initials. Theirs was not, however, what one would call an equal partnership.

Richard Pimmer was a craftsman from the vicinity of Nansemond Fort who was recorded to have purchased materials for the purpose of making "forty gross of pipes," according to Kiser and Luckenbach's research. To that end, he also purchased Silvanus Gilpin, an indentured servant and known pipe maker.

Their work was locally popular, and only the third example of pipes whose makers can be known for certain from this period. Pimmer and Gilpin's complicated relationship also speaks to the unfortunate reality of life in the Chesapeake area during the tobacco boom. Pipe making was commonly carried out on the site of plantations where tobacco was grown, often as a supplementary and somewhat low-stakes income stream. Since making clay pipes from a mold is a rather simple process, it was often carried out by enslaved Africans and Native Americans, likely those who were unable to work in the fields, such as pregnant women, children, and the elderly.

There is evidence that enslaved craftspeople left their own mark on Colonial era pipes, with some researchers identifying West African motifs and shapes in finds from the Chesapeake. Free women were also adept pipe makers during the 17th century, though their names are not known. Pipe making was a rare way for women to learn their own trade and earn their own money during the period, often during lulls in the usual labors of farm life, according to Kiser and Luckenbach. Clay pipe making in 17th century Maryland and Virginia, then, represents a unique cultural zone where creativity, oppressive social structures, and personal agency all coexisted, allowing some makers a measure of freedom, while others were bound to such labor, but not without opportunities for self-expression.

Colonial Pipe Making From a Cultural Perspective

Pipe making in Colonial America existed at the fringes of the known world, and as with many such locales, spurred creativity and innovation from its earliest practitioners. What one could call artisan pipe making is a craft and ethos that has existed for as long as smoking itself, and the earliest pipe artists we know of come from the English colonies of the Tidewater region. While this fact should be a point of pride for American pipe smokers, we would be remiss not to acknowledge that such craftspeople whose names and work survive are an exception to the rule of pipe making in that place and time.

The majority of pipes made in the Colonies were the product of the burgeoning slavery-based socio-economic system that would only deepen in the South. Even among the many unfree pipe makers, there is evidence that what they made reflected their identities and experience, and many free women, whose rights had not yet been won at the time, were able to exercise a rare independence in the craft of pipe making. The stories and pipes of early America tell a complicated but compelling story, emblematic of the history of our country, producing beautiful and innovative pipes and conditions of bondage to the leaf smoked within them. With any luck, these histories will serve to inspire the creativity of pipe makers today, and remind all readers of the progress the U.S. has made.

Bibliography

• "Creolization of the Northeastern Woodland American Clay Stemmed Tobacco Pipe" (2019), by Taft Kiser and Al Luckenbach
• "Making Pipes: Experiments to Learn Things We Don't Know We Don't Know" (2019), by Taft Kiser, Al Luckenbach, and Brian Palmer
• "Seventeenth-Century Tobacco Pipe Manufacturing in the Chesapeake Region: A Preliminary Delineation of Makers and Their Styles" (2006), by Al Luckenbach and Taft Kiser