Description:
Wrought iron pipe tongs or tobacco tongs (the contemporary term). Tobacco tongs, which held an ember used to lit a clay or iron tobacco pipe, were often used in formal parlors and hung by the fireplace from the hooked end, or placed in a box used to store pipes and tobacco. Tobacco tongs were one of the most ornate and complex iron forms made by New England colonial blacksmiths. As a result, most tobacco tongs owned in the Connecticut Valley were probably imported from England or Boston since very few local blacksmiths appear to have made them. Commonly, tongs were made by blacksmiths, and then filed, polished, and assembled by whitesmiths. These tongs have two long round arms with small round terminals; hinge pin that extends from the hinge to a point used to scrape the pipe clean; and a shaped spring fitted between the handles, one side of which is U-shaped with a round tamper on the end.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+1916.1 |
