AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Antique Gun Collecting => Topic started by: spgordon on August 21, 2025, 03:18:05 PM
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Back in 2016, after finding that Andreas Albrecht's occupation in a Lititz membership catalog was listed as "pipe-head maker," I speculated (https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entries/johann-andreas-albrecht/#_ednref87 (https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entries/johann-andreas-albrecht/#_ednref87)) that it was he who had been making large numbers of pipe-heads in the late 1750s in Bethlehem:
Several membership catalogs produced at Lititz, while always identifying Albrecht’s trade as a gunstocker, reveal that in 1777 or 1778 he worked as a Pfeiffenkopfmacher, a pipe head maker. This detail from the late 1770s suggests that it was Albrecht who had been involved in the extensive pipe head production out of the locksmith shop in Bethlehem in the 1750s. In March 1756, for instance, the Locksmith supplied 4 dozen pipe heads to the Strangers’ Store. In March 1759, Bethlehem’s Potter “burn[ed] pipe heads” for the Locksmith, who, in subsequent months, sold very large quantities of pipe heads to the Strangers’ Store: 400 in April 1759, 100 more in August, and 50 more in October. Soon after, Albrecht was assigned to “make the new machine to produce pipe heads” out of brass. The gun shop that Albrecht turned over to Oerter in November 1766 contained a pipe head press and several molds. The emendation to the Lititz membership catalogs suggests that this trade constituted a significant portion of Albrecht’s activities, and he continued it beyond the 1770s: the inventory of goods produced after Albrecht’s death lists more than 2,000 pipes (“fifteen Gross Smoak Pipes”).
Yesterday (almost a decade later) I came across confirmation! This 9 March 1757 entry in the minutes of an important Bethlehem committee says that Br. Franke commissioned Albrecht to make pipe heads for Bethlehem's Store:
(https://i.ibb.co/7JjpwrFy/Albrecht-9-March-1757-5-copy.jpg) (https://ibb.co/DDzMxwnK)
Among other things, this adds to the recent discussion about how gunmakers actually spent their time.
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What’s a pipe head?
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Very interesting. Rich I assume it is a pipe bowl for smoking. One with a separate stem. Perhaps something like this:
(https://i.ibb.co/fWx68sX/shopping.webp) (https://imgbb.com/)
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I dunno. Metal smoking pipe heads would get pretty hot. I don’t recall seeing metal smoking pipes as antiques. Could be?
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Clay pipe heads, not metal.
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Presumably he was making molds of metal and casting them in clay, firing them in a kiln, etc.
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Presumably he was making molds of metal and casting them in clay, firing them in a kiln, etc.
yeah, I mis-interpreted this: Soon after, Albrecht was assigned to “make the new machine to produce pipe heads” out of brass. Clay pipes it is.
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Presumably he was making molds of metal and casting them in clay, firing them in a kiln, etc.
yeah, I mis-interpreted this: Soon after, Albrecht was assigned to “make the new machine to produce pipe heads” out of brass. Clay pipes it is.
Yes, it is a misleading sentence!--I didn't realize it when I wrote it. :-[
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I have seen one pipe bowl made out of silver that was recovered from one of the early 18th Century shipwrecks in Florida. Virtually all of the pipes recovered were ceramic. One all metal container for storing a pipe inside of was also found. James Levy
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Related pipes from Bethabara
(https://i.ibb.co/G4mnf8YH/Bethabara-pipes.gif) (https://ibb.co/4nkKwXv1)
https://www.chipstone.org/images.php/456/Ceramics-in-America-2009/Tradition-and-Adaptation-in-Moravian-Press-Molded-Earthenware (https://www.chipstone.org/images.php/456/Ceramics-in-America-2009/Tradition-and-Adaptation-in-Moravian-Press-Molded-Earthenware)
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Interesting--Aust and Christ were potters down there (perhaps more expected craftsmen to be making these pipe-heads).
https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entries/gottfried-aust-1722-1788-and-rudolph-christ-1750-1833-moravian-potters-in-north-carolina/ (https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entries/gottfried-aust-1722-1788-and-rudolph-christ-1750-1833-moravian-potters-in-north-carolina/)
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Interesting--Aust and Christ were potters down there (perhaps more expected craftsmen to be making these pipe-heads).
https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entries/gottfried-aust-1722-1788-and-rudolph-christ-1750-1833-moravian-potters-in-north-carolina/ (https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entries/gottfried-aust-1722-1788-and-rudolph-christ-1750-1833-moravian-potters-in-north-carolina/)
I wonder if there is info as to the origin of the pipe molds used in NC in the documentary record. Fun rabbit hole.
ETA some great video of pipe making ca. 1955.
https://youtu.be/lfj3Vm0M8fo?si=cE3kVFwE4R-Vscmp (https://youtu.be/lfj3Vm0M8fo?si=cE3kVFwE4R-Vscmp)