Stone, steatite

On the base of the pipe bowl and extending half way up the stem has markings that suggest the belly of a snake. The markings strongly suggest a Northern Watersnake.

On the top side of the bowl: open mouth, jaw with teeth, 8 teeth on both upper and lower jaw.
On the base of the bowl incised with scales of snake. Markings suggest bird claw/talon where bowl and stem meet on front.

Dichotomy: claw of bird, upper area, about to grab the snake that is in peril, hence snake's mouth open.
Because of the direction of the tobacco drawn through the pipe, the bird is in the position of prevailing power.

From Annual Archaeological Report of Ontario for 1888. Provincial archaeologist David Boyle wrote: "This gracefully formed pipe is almost as perfectly round and smooth in the bowl as if it had been produced in a machine. The stem is a flattened oval - the upper and lower being the compressed sides. The wall of the bowl is no thicker than that of an ordinary clay pipe and, with the exception of a small chip out of the lip, the specimen is absolutely perfect." See publication history below of full citation details.

Sketch & comment appear in the Annual Archaeological Reports of Ontario: David Boyle, "Notes on Specimens," in Annual Report of the Canadian Institute, Session 1887-88, being part of Appendix L. to the Report of the Minister of Education, Ontario, 1888 (Toronto: Warwick & Sons, 1888) p. 24-25.

A complete set of the AAROs are available in the library of the Royal Ontario Museum. This volume is also available as a digital copy through the Internet Archive (www.archive.org)

Unknown artist, pipe. Currently in the Royal Ontario Museum, NS50. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2008; GRASAC item id 26676.

Record created as a result of GRASAC-sponsored research trip to the Royal Ontario Museum, December 15-19, 2008. Record created during post-trip clean up by project RA Lisa Truong, under the supervision of Heidi Bohaker.