Clay tobacco pipe codes, 2004 - Museum of London

Introduction 

Post 1992 Museum of London Code Expansions 

Clay Tobacco Pipe Codes 

LAARC 2007 

This document presents a distillation of MoL Clay Tobacco Pipe Codes extant for the 

period succeeding 2004 and subsequently superseded by the current edition of the 

schema. This document contains schema for: 

• Pipe forms; 

• Pipe decoration; 

• Tip codes; 

• Bowl codes; 

• Burnishing codes; 

• Milling codes; 

• Mark codes. 

1) Pipe forms 

FORM E DATE L DATE EXPANSION 

AO1 1580 1610 Handmade occ marked 

AO2 1580 1610 Occurs in elongated form 

AO3 1580 1610 Heart shaped base 

AO4 1610 1640 Flat base 

AO5 1610 1640 Flat base 

AO6 1610 1640 Spurred 



AO9 1640 1660 Increase in size 

AO10 1640 1660 Heart shaped bases 

AO11 1640 1670 AO11 

AO12 1640 1670 AO12 

AO13 1660 1680 AO13 

AO14 1660 1680 Degenrate spur 

AO15 1660 1680 AO15 

AO16 1580 1910 West coutry style o'hang bowl 

AO17 1580 1910 West coutry style o'hang bowl 

AO18 1660 1680 Straight sided 

AO19 1690 1710 Late spur type 

AO20 1680 1710 Long bowl 



AO23 1690 1720 West country style brittle bowl 

AO24 1700 1740 American export style 

AO25 1700 1770 Standard south-east type 

AO26 1740 1800 Forward spur thin sided 

AO27 1780 1820 Thin brittle bowl 

AO28 1820 1840 Pointed spur small initials

AO29 1840 1880 Forward drooping bowl small spur 

AO30 1850 1910 Copy of the briar 

AO31 1850 1910 Copy of dutch type 

AO32 1840 1910 Occ found in London 

AO33 1840 1910 Irish type 

OS1 1580 1660 Thick stem occ polish wide bore 

OS2 1580 1610 Slim elongated bowl flat base prolonged stem 

OS3 1580 1610 Bowl and foot f'ward usually thick 

OS4 1600 1640 Small bowl with pedestal foot 

OS5 1640 1690 Longer and large bowl slim stem r'lete rim 

OS6 1660 1680 Large bulbous bowl occ heart and everted base 

OS7 1660 1680 Bowl with nearly straight sides 

OS8 1680 1710 Long elongated bowl mod straight sides 

OS9 1680 1710 Long bowl with curved sides 

OS10 1700 1740 Upright bowl narrow thick walls and stems 

OS11 1730 1760 Wide mouth bowl, in stems and walls 

OS12 1730 1780 Quite wide mouth and med-tall walls 

OS13 1780 1820 Thin short bowls flared mouths 

OS14 1820 1840 Thin narrow bowls narrow and flat foot 

OS15 1840 1880 Forward drooping bowl smaller spur 

OS16 1610 1640 Small bulbous bowl thick stem 

OS17 1640 1670 Large bulbous bowl oft incipient spur 

OS18 1660 1680 Increase in bowl size from A17 

OS19 1690 1710 Very long bowl with straighter sides 

OS20 1690 1730 Slight flare bowl parallel lip to stem 

OS22 1730 1780 Large bowl long forward spur 

OS23 1760 1800 Thin bowls and stems long forward spur 

OS24 1810 1840 Smaller narrower bowl thin wall narrow spur 

OS25 1660 1690 Thick straight sided bowl and thick stem 

OS26 1680 1710 Elongated bowl with horizontal lip no spur 

OS27 1730 1760 Wide mouths thinner stems and walls no spur 

OS28 1850 1900 Large bowl slightly bulbous 

OS29 1850 1900 No spur 

OS30 1850 1900 Wooden shapes no spur 

AD1 1600 1600 Atkinson (1972) Dutch Type 1 
















AD18 1675 1675 Atkinson (1972) Dutch Type 18






























OS21 1700 1740 Bowl+ flowing f'ward curved stem med thick 

AD13 1623 1623 AD13 

UNK 1580 1910 Unknown type 

AB1A 1630 1640 Broseley Type (Atkinson 1975) 

AB1B 1650 1650 Broseley Type (Atkinson 1975) 

AB1C 1670 1680 Broseley Type (Atkinson 1975) 
















AB9A 1850 1870 Broseley Type (Atkinson 1975)




AB9D 1880 1950 Broseley Type (Atkinson 1975) 

2) Pipe decoration 

Decoration Expansion Symbols 

ACRN Acorn acorn 

ANCH Anchor asterisk 

ARMH Arms of House of Hanover bird 

ARMW3 Arms of William III circle and dot 

BDS Moulded beading round stem fleur-de-lys 

BRIT Britannia flower 

BUFF 

Royal and Ancient Order of 

Buffaloes pierced star 

CLAW Claw design rosette 

COST Compass and star sedmented circle 

FLOR Floral decoration (on stem) segmented circle/dots 

FOXG Fox and grapes shield 

FOXH Fox and Hounds (public house) 

Bunch of grapes (poss public 

star (6 pointed) 

GRAP house) sun 

HARP Harp and other Irish emblems 

HOOF Pony's hoof 

Leaves along bowl seams, front 

LB and back 

Leaves along seam of bowl, back 

LBB only 

Leaves along seam of bowl, front 

LBF only 

Leaves along bowl and stem 

LBS seams 

LOND Arms of the City of London 

LS Leaves along seams of stem 

LSS Leaves along sides of stem 

MASN Masonic 

OAKS Oak leaf and acorn seams 

PITT Pitt for ever 

POW Prince of Wales feathers 

RIBD Ribs and dots 

RIBV Vertical ribbing 

RIBVS Vertical ribbs below swags 

RIBV1 Vertical ribs, even 

Vertical ribs, alternating thin and 

RIBV2 wider 

ROUD Rouletted diamonds 

ROUL Rouletting 

RRS Ribbed roundel seams on bowl 

RST Rouletted stem

RTHS Rose and thistle 

RWSS 

Ribbed wheatsheaf seams on 

bowl 

SCAL Fish scales 

SCR Scroll 

SHIP Ship 

SNAK Coiled snake 

STEMR Rouletting on stem 

THRN Thorn design 

TURK Turk's Head (public house) 

WATM Arms of the Watermen 

Wheatsheaves along bowl 

WB seams, front and back 

Wheatsheaves along bowl seam, 

WBB back only 

Wheatsheaves along bowl seam, 

WBF front only 

XKEY Cross Keys (public house) 

3) Tip codes 

Code Category Description 

C tip description Cut (no moulded shape) 

R tip description Rounded (simple rounded end formed in mould) 

N tip description Nipple (circular-sectioned stem ending in mulded nipple) 

D tip description Diamond-shaped (diamond-shaped section stem-end, no nipple) 

DN tip description Diamond nipple (stem end diamond/lozenge-shaped before nipple) 

FO tip description Flattened oval (at the end of the stem, no nipple) 

O tip finish No visible finish 

RW tip finish Red wax 

GW tip finish Green wax 

GG tip finish Green-glazed (often thin and kight in colour 

YG tip finish Yellow-glazed 

CG tip finish Clear-glazed 

* tip finish Other (specify under 'comments') 

4) Bowl codes 


C Bowl finish (rim) Cut (single horizontal knife cut) 

B Bowl finish (rim) Bottered (rim smoothed with bottering tool to give rounded profile) 

I Bowl finish (rim) Internal knife cut (clay cut from inside to make thinner, finer rim) 

W Bowl finish (rim) Wiped (wiped or smoothed, not bottered) 

5) Burnishing codes 


Y burnishing Present but unclear

W burnishing Whole surviving pipe burnished (use with codes below) 

P burnishing Part of pipe only burnished (use with codes below) 

F burnishing Fine (closely spaced, even polishing lines, no gaps, glossy surface) 

G burnishing Good (well applied with close even strokes) 

A burnishing Average (gaps roughly equal to polishing lines, light and uneven) 

B burnishing Poor (irregular and scrappy) 

6) Milling codes 


0 Milling (extent) No milling present 

1 Milling (extent) Milled round quarter of rim 

2 Milling (extent) Milled round half rim 

3 Milling (extent) Milled round three-quarters of rim 

4 Milling (extent) Fully milled 

D Milling (extent) Damaged rim 

7) Mark codes 


I mark type Primary mark incuse 

R mark type Primary mark relief 

A mark type Applied (not in clay, eg rubber stamp) 

M mark method Moulded mark 

S mark method Stamped mark 

I mark method Ink stamp (rubber stamp) 

TP mark method Transfer-printed mark 

HW mark method Hand-written mark 

* mark method Other 

H mark position Base of heel 

SP mark position Base of spur 

BB mark position Under bowl with no spur or heel 

SH mark position Sides of heel 

SS mark position Sides of spur 

BF mark position On bowl, facing smoker 

BL mark position On bowl, left side facing smoker 

BR mark position On bowl, right side facing smoker 

BA mark position On front of bowl 

SX mark position Top of stem, reading across it 

SL mark position On stem, reading along it 

SM mark position Multiple stamps right round stem, as band/pattern 

RS mark position Roller-stamped stem, continuous band around stem (not milled) 

ST mark position Stem twist, or spiral of shallow grooves round stem 

IH) etc other mark Initials 

* other mark Symbol or other mark - expand in comments 

CRITCHFIELD other mark Name and/or address

Clay tobacco pipe codes, 2004 - Museum of London

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