Tobacco pipe

Date: 1865-1899

Accession number: NN9245

Material: pipeclay

The bowl of this tobacco pipe is shaped to resemble the head of an African man. During the 17th and 18th centuries, North America was a British colony. Most of the tobacco imported to England was grown on plantations in Virginia and Maryland. Slaves were the workforce on these plantations. Tobacconists' signs used the iconography of Black people for many years, due to this earlier association with tobacco.
Pipe in the shape of a Black boy's head.
Pipe in the shape of a Black boy's head.
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