Tobacco pipe, clay pipe

Complete bowl. Moulded decoration: thick leaves (poorly impressed) along bowl seams, on front only; on back of bowl, relatively well impressed, above a ribbon with motto DIEU [ET MON] DROIT, a Garter wreath with motto HONI SO[IT QUI] MAL Y PENSE, enclosing Hanoverian Royal arms (three fleur-de-lys and harp particularly clear in second and third quarters), with lion rampant and unicorn to either side, the whole surmounted by a crown. A large group of similar pipes was excavated at St Peter's Street, London, in 1995 (site code: SAL94). Atkinson and Oswald (1969) type 26. The heraldic device dates this pipe to before the Acts of Union (1800), when England's claim to the throne of France (represented by the fleur-de-lys) was finally abandoned.