|
Wheel stamps make up a large percentage of the finds from late seventeenth century tobacco pipe assemblages in the north Herefordshire region. It has been demonstrated from the Pipe Aston material that they represent a significant part of the product range of makers well equipped with both full name and initial stamps. The wheel stamp must have had a significance to the customer of the day which is now lost. It first appears occurs in the early seventeenth century but come to prominence in the commonwealth period and continue alongside the rose and crown stamps of the restoration and into the eighteenth century at Roy's Orchard. Their significance was carried to the new world where they were used extensively by the pipemaker Emmanuel Drue working at Swan Cove, Maryland c.1650-1669.
|