by Keith Cicero, Hallam, Pennsylvania
Volume 72, Number 3, July 2025 Central States Archaeological Journal
Figure 1. Iroquois Ring Bowl style clay pipe. It measures 4” in length and retains its original label.
Shown here is a classic example of an Iroquois Ring bowl style clay smoking pipe. This style is found throughout the Iroquois speaking territories but seems to be very prominent in the Jefferson County, New York area. The piece has exceptional history as it was found in 1911 by a Mr. Wm. Pickering in Jefferson County. The piece was later acquired in the 1920s by J. P. Snyder of Cape Vincent, who at the time was amassing a large collection of Native American artifacts, most notably pipes from Jefferson County. A photo exists showing Snyder with a large display of pipes on his front porch in 1921. This pipe (Fig. 1) and the entire J P Snyder collection was later acquired by noted Indiana pipe collector Gordon Hart, who amassed a large collection of Native American prehistoric and historic pipes from the Mississippi River to the East Coast starting in the 1960s.
This piece was one of the few pipes in the Snyder collection that was unbroken and unrestored. Gordon Hart noted that most of the Snyder pipes had a decent amount of restoration. Gordon Hart published several books including two pipe books (1978 and 1998). Approximately 10 years ago, this pipe was within a grouping of the Snyder pipe collection that were collected by a friend of mine, Jerry Beaver. After Jerry secured a deal and let a few of the pipes go to collector Todd Mellinger, I was fortunate to acquire this piece along with a few others. The pipe miraculously retains the original 100 plus year old label and measures 4” in length.
This pipe is pictured in Hart’s second book, Hart’s Prehistoric Pipe Rack Volume 2 on page 228.
Figure 2. The pipe is resting top center in this photograph of pipes from the Snyder collection in Hart’s Prehistoric Pipe Rack Vol.1.
(Fig. 2) in the top center of the plate and will be also shown in the newest edition of Who’s Who in Indian Relics, which will be Volume 13.
References
Hart, Gordon
1978 Hart’s Prehistoric Pipe Rack. Volume 1 Hart Publishers. Bluffton, Indiana.
1998 Hart’s Prehistoric Pipe Rack. Volume 2 Hart Publishers. Bluffton, Indiana.