John W. Walker of the National Park Service, who had worked in the area and become interested in the pipes made there, provided us with a copy of his field notes and some examples of pipes.
John C. Ewers of the Smithsonian Institution had visited Pamplin. He gave us much information and showed us several pipe forms from the area that are in the collections of that institution.
Rex L. Wilson, National Park Service, loaned us a copy of his manuscript, “Clay Tobacco Pipes from Fort Laramie, Wyoming and Related Sites”, in which he identified some specimens as having come from Pamplin.
FACTORY PRICE LIST OF PIPES AND JOBBERS DISCOUNTS, AS OF 1941.
The Company’s price list of November 1941 listed “The Powhatan Machine Made”, fitted with cork closures and 10″ reed stems, bowls trade-marked, packed 50 to box, 25¢ retailer. Price $6.00 per box.” (Plate 10).
Five other models were listed, “5 in. reed stems, packed 100 to box, 15¢ retailer. Price $3.00 per box.” Two models were listed similarly, but 10¢ retailers, price $2.50 per box. Two other 10¢ retailers were listed at $2.70 per box, and one model at $2.85 per box but the suggested retail price was still 10¢ each.
One model, their “Ole Virginny Hamburg”, was offered in finest fire-clay, hard-burned, white, simulates meerschaum, also in red. Similar to “Ole Virginny Shaker”. It was a 10¢ retailer, $2.70 per box of 100. (It is of interest that this pipe, listed elsewhere in this same price list, but as “Ole Virginny Shaker of Virginia red clay, a heavier stone pipe”, was priced as a 15¢ retailer and $3.00 per box). (Plate 10 ).
Jobbers discounts were offered. “10 to 20 boxes, 20%”, and going up by 5% stages to “101 to 500 boxes, 35% discount”. “We make many other styles of Indian Clay and Stone Pipes, ... we can make any style of pipe that can be made of clay. Our own designers and artists are at your service” (Plate 11).
In the last years of Factory operation their sales carried an identification tag, “This Is An ‘Original’ Powhatan Pipe”, and it was being made by the last two women of the Pamplin area who were still making pipes at their homes (Plate 12).
The pipes are illustrated natural size. The largest and the smallest pipe of each form available to us are shown. In many instances this difference in size is not great; however, it does illustrate that minor variations often existed in different molds for the same pipe form. The diameters for the stem openings have not been included since they have proved useful only in consideration of the earlier integral-stem clays, and not for consideration of the “short-base” pipes of the type and time included in this report (Wilson, 1971:2).