Decorated Pipe from wreck of Confederate Blockade Runner!
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A very lovely smoking pipe of an umber-brown clay. It was salvaged from the underwater wreckage of a Confederate blockade runner near Brownsville, Texas. The raised designs on its bowl show: A CW period locomotive and a Paddlewheeler. This is much fancier than the majority of smoking pipes used by ground troops. Tobacco and coffee were two great comforts to the common soldier and officer alike on both sides of the picket lines.
Civil War Period Patriotic Matchsafe
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This is a nickel-plated brass matchsafe from the Civil War period, showing the common flip-top design. Matches were struck upon the serated edge, being used to light cigars, pipes, tent stoves and camp fires. There is a wonderfully bold American eagle and U.S. Shield design impressed on both sides. While metal was the most common, match safes were also made of gutta percha and rarely wood.
Clay Pipe bowl with a gnarly face design1
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Since smoking pipes in camp was so popular, clay pipes ranged from the plain white clay bowl to those with flaboyant and fantastic images incorporated into their design. This pipe bowl shows a bearded whizzened gent wearing a colored cap and a military collar insignia. The site of discovery is unknown.
Pipe Bowl: Googly-Eyed Troop wearing kepi
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Pipe bowls soon became flights-of-fancy to amuse the troops and draw their money toward a particular maker's product. Here we see a design that approximates a soldier's face with a Civil War period military kepi on his head. Stem broken off: The likely reason that it ended up in the military trash pit.
Frog Riding a Fish Brown Clay Pipe Bowl
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Smoking cheap clay pipes in camp was an important passtime for troops as the chatted after meals or in the evenings. Some bowls were molded in quite decorative motifs while others were plain. When the stems broke off, they were discarded in camp trash pits. This one in brown clay is very cute: a frog riding a fish! Imagine the man who was firing a hot musket in the midst of a deadly charge later that day settling back to smoke from such a pipe!!!
Black clay pipe of Hot Air Balloon
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This clay pipe bowl depicts the shape and design of a hot-air observation balloon. While the invention of the airplane was still forty years into the future, balloons would occasionally be sent aloft to spy upon the details of enemy fortifications and troop deployments. Yet, it was not as easy to do this during the Civil War as later during World War I (1914-1918) when many dirigibles and observation balloons hovered over the deadly trenched mazes of Europe.
African Face Pipe Bowl from CW Prison
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This was discovered in the ruins of the Union Civil War Prison in Elmyra, New York where captured Confederate troops were kept. The design is that of an African male's face.
African Man's Face: Civil War Clay Pipe Bowl
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Coming from the site of the Civil War Prison in Elmyra, New York, this clay pipe was discarded in a trash pit due to a broken off stem. These pipes were most popular to smoke during the CW period by troops of both sides. The design is both attractive and historically significant! An African man's face makes up the bowl.
Tintype of 1st Reg. Artilleryman with a Molded Clay Pipe
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This is 1/9th plate tintype of a young Union artilleryman, looking very relaxed and confident with a pipe hanging from his mouth. On his kepi he has small false embroidered cannon for artillery and a Regimental number "1."
Maiden Head Pipe Bowl
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This is a heavy, fancy bowl depicting a maiden's head. She wears a bonnet and high-collar dress, with her hair put up in a bun. There is a chip to her nose. No stem.
Period tortoise shell and gutta percha Snuff Box
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Snuff was still popular from earlier generations. It was carried in wooden, brass or silver boxes. Then a pinch was taken from the supply in the box and sniffed up into a nostril, causing a tingle and sometimes a sneeze. In the era of the American Civil War, the more durable and affordable gutta percha was commonly used to construct rectangular and ovoid boxes with flip-tops or snapping lids. This one is adorned with a tortoise shell insert on the top.
Lead poker chips...
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Poker and gambling at cards was very popular amongst troops on both sides of the poicket line. Chips for poker games were often field-crafted from lead bullets that were hammered into flat discs.
Fancy Civil War Period Snuff Box
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This larger sized snuff box from the mid-Nineteenth Century depicts a man and woman sitting together romantically beside a gentle pond. The original owner must have liked snuff quite a lot, for it measures 3 3/8" by 2 1/2." This is constructed of brass coated in nickle, a common practice employed at the time of the Civil War for imitating silver through the use of an overlay of nickle. No maker's marking. Flip top upon a rear hinge.
Camp-Site Matchsafe
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This is a nickle-plated brass matchsafe that bears similar engraved images of a CW soldier's encampment on each side... It has a corrugated match-striker section along one end... Measures 2 1/4" by 1 1/2"... Imagine it sitting in the pocket of a man firing a rifle desperately at Gettysburg, wondering if he will live or die in the next ten minutes...
Pipe Bowl carved as Soldier's Head
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This is a wonderful old tobacco pipe carved in the shape of a grizzly old bearded soldier's head wearing a kepi cap. The expression and detail are stunning. It measures about 5 1/4 inches in length and 2 3/8 inches high. Imagine some tough old Union sergeant puffing away on such a pipe which looked just like him the very night before he fought at Gettysburg. Some Civil War soldiers actually did endure battles with their pipes hanging from their mouths
Internal Revenue Tax Stamp for Matches
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This is a square, brown Internal Revenue Tax Stamp (cat. R023) for the AB & S company. Denomination paid: One cent. It is interesting that specific companies were still allowed to use their own customized taxation stamps on their products.
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