Artefact from the 18th century: archeologists find a giant smoking pipe in Moscow downtown

Over 20 ancient smoking pipes and their fragments were found on Tverskaya Street. They rested at the depth of 830 centimeters. Supposedly, there used to be a well there in the 18th century. Together with smoking accessories, archeologists also discovered items typical of the city life: coins, hair pomade jars, glass vials, buttons, porcelain and faience tableware. Their most precious find was a well-preserved Turkish-style smoking pipe made of red clay.

“One of the latest finds at this summer’s main dig site on Tverskaya Street around number 10, was a unique large smoking pipe. It’s the second pipe of that sort found in Moscow; the first one had been discovered in Zamoskvorechye not so long ago. Right now, the pipe is being restored in the lab; after that, it will be handed over to museums,” said Alexey Yemelyanov, Head of the Moscow Department of Cultural Heritage.

The pipe dates back to the 18th century. Its faceted, elliptic bowl is decorated with mold-pressed kauri shells and floral ornaments.

An average Turkish smoking pipe size used to be 6 by 3.5 centimeters. This one, though, was 10 by 6 centimeters. Of course, it’s also way heavier than the rest.

According to Alexey Yemelyanov, it’s hard to say where exactly the artefact came from: it could be a bespoke order for a specific customer, or just a home decoration to prove that the residents were following the current fashion.

Emperor Peter I was the originator of the tobacco, snuff boxes, smoking and all the related trends. Initially, Russia had no smoking pipe production at all. All of them were imported. In April 1698, Peregrine Osborne, Marquess of Carmarthen, a London friend of the Russian Emperor, got a seven-year monopoly to import smoking accessories and sell tobacco in Russia. Moscow offices sent edicts to that effect to all cities, government villages and neighborhoods. Therein, the Tsar declared his subjects free “to drink and otherwise consume tobacco as they wish without restrictions.” Tobacco chewing and sniffing also took root in Russia. But pipe smoking proved to be the most popular of all.

Pipe bowls were made of clay. There were various types of clay used, and many forms of pipe bowls made by various manufacturers.

After Peter in one of his decrees declared that every tavern in Russia should serve “coffee, chocolate, pool, grape wines, vodkas from Gdansk and France, imported ales, beer and half-beer brewed in St. Petersburg instead of kvass, as well as tobacco for smoking”, they started offering Dutch-style smoking pipes already stuffed with tobacco and ready for use. In addition to them, many archeological digs in Moscow also found Oriental, or Turkish-style pipes.

Those pipes are shaped as coffee cups with a cylindric protrusion at the bottom that could be a couple of centimeters long at most. That was where the pipe stem went into. Distinctive ornaments, often floral, decorated the pipe bowls. Also on them you could find the artisan’s stamp with the name and some funny adage: precursors of modern advertisements.

Pretty soon, Russian potters started making smoking pipes; naturally, many of them worked from Moscow. Their products were in high demand because fragile clay pipes broke often.