No 17. Yet more (different)Pipe Tampers .. they keep coming!

Here we are at post No 17. Prior to this article, and since I started this blog in February 2021, I have covered 48 different legs from my collection.  From the statistics that I can cull from my blog  I don’t appear to be getting many “hits”, but invisible in the records are any followers who receive a direct distribution of each new posting so I may have more readers that the stats show. That’s the penalty of having a unique hobby!! 

By the way, a good quality glossy monthly publication, Images, is delivered free to most residences in Derby and some further afield. The edition distributed at the beginning of August had a 2-page article about my collection, being a Microtibialist and with a number of photographs of some “legs” and my appearance (with my daughter!) on the BBC Antique Road show. No third party response to the press article, but that is what I have come to expect!! Patience is the key.

I was going to cover Button and Boot hooks in this issue, but I’ll delay that until next time, and show you some more Pipe Tampers. As you know I have 47 of these smoking aids, but as I try to ensure that every new Tamper differs from the rest, this selection in this post will all be different. Concerning those made of bone and ivory, as they are each hand produced the likelihood of duplication is very remote as no two should be the same.

These are the four tampers I have chosen for this post. In total they way 175 grams, from the left 150; 10; 10; 5.

                            

Let’s start off with the first one on the left, the heavy looking brass leg. It IS heavy at 150grams, 4 1/2 inches long, and is a good leg likeness. There are no markings, and although it appears to be a tamper, the tamping end is not hatched.  When I bought it at an outdoor stall at a fair in Uttoxeter 10 years ago, the stall holder was suggesting that it could be a seal, and it’s true it could be engraved as a seal to be used as a wax seal. The main thing that makes me err towards a seal, is that it is heavy, and there would be no need to have such a heavy item for tamping tobacco. In fact as a tamper it would drag down a waistcoat pocket.  Another possibility is that it was used as a paper weigh - it would do the job.

It was very tarnished when I bought it, helping to keep the price down, and I spent a lot of time polishing away a large black patch.  In fact, copper doesn’t actually tarnish – it actually develops a patina that becomes richer and darker and which I ultimately  polished away..

 

The next leg, bought at the NEC in 2011, is another leg carved from bone, and said to be made by a Prisoner of War. The top is hatched as tampers usually are and made of Black Ebony.   

                                                                                          

 

 

The carving is very good, and quite deep. On the basis that the buttons would be on the outside, this is a right leg, and I have shown both sides as the inside has a well engraved letter R. I have previously shown you one engraved with P and T (for Pipe Tamper) but I cannot guess what the R stands for.  It really is well engraved.

 

                                                                                

       

 The third leg was bought in July 2009, the year I started collecting legs, and this one I bought at the NEC Antique Fair. It is No 6 in my collection, and before I wised up, I had bought this Ivory item. It is well carved, with an ebonite top, once again not hatched, but satisfactory to act as a tamper. The leg has a tall wedge heel and some nice engraving, but it is not possible to differentiate between a left or right leg!! Being very light, it is undoubtedly a ladies tamper – it is very tactile. 

Finally the smallest, an unmarked bone leg, at just 5 grams. Bought at the NEC in 2013 it was said to be c late 19^th century.  Again, this would certainly be used by a lady, and has well defined toes but no cross hatching on the tamper end.

 

So today you have four nice but very different pipe tampers.

David