From an 1850 painting "CALIFORNIA NEWS".
Catches the excitement at a Long Island, NY post office reading reports of the gold fields.
Notice the face pipe on the table, also the gent on the right with pipe in hand.
These are the typical German made pipes of the 1850' and early 1860's. The 'Presidential Series' are popular with collectors. These pipes are found in various colors, green being pretty scarce I think.
Henry Clay and Lewis Cass are represented with this series even though they were defeated in their election attempts. Henry Clay defeated 3 times.
I don't know who this figure is.. the pipe was excavated in an 1858/59 Utah site. Max told me once who he thought it represented, European royalty,???
This pipe is often called U.S. Grant. I don't know about that. Grant did not become well known until 1863. He was elected president in 1868.
If these are being found in the 1850's sites, it is not Grant. Some collectors refer to it as the "Philosopher". I have heard it referred to as Caesar.
Here are some early 1870's pipes. American made I would think. These were all found in Utah mining camps. All show various remains of hand painting.
No Presidents here. We have the Ayatollah, a dark skinned turban head, and the popular talon bowl.
Here is an interesting article that Mr. Bell put together for Bottles and Extras
COLLECTING AMERICAN FACE PIPES
Anyone that has done much digging in '50's stuff has found these. Very fun gold rush era collectible.
Some more information that is interesting:
FORT UNION TRADING POST CLAY PIPES
sorry again for losing any comments. They disappeared when we switched this post from the other site. We are ready to post to this site so wont switch any more.
ReplyDeleteRoger The pipe you call Grant was 1st known as the philosopher in the 1850s german made pipe catalogs. The john tabor pipe that was made later is smaller and not as detailed as the German made pipe. Because neither pipe has writing on the side like so many other German made pipes it has been called Grant, Baccus , and the philosopher maybe even Ceasar. I have great documentation and information on many of the German pipes. Perhaps I can post some of it soon.My early article contains some misinformation but there has been new research on these pipes. MAX BELL Cal49er
ReplyDeleteThat would be great Max. Look forward to your posts. You got me interested in these pipes, now I want to know more about them.
ReplyDeleteI want to post some Gold Rush lithos that I have but there's no place to do so.
ReplyDelete