An Enigmatic Monarch: The Biography of a Headless, Mold-made, White Pipe Clay Pipe King Recovered in 17th Century Maryland

Anne Dowling Grulich

An Enigmatic Monarch: The Biography of a Headless, Mold-made, White Pipe Clay Pipe King Recovered in 17th Century Maryland

Part of the An Archaeological Study of Colonial Chesapeake Culture project

Year: 2007

Summary

This article follows a diminutive, headless, seventeenth century pipe clay figurine of a king from its conception in post-medieval Europe through its use, interment, and rebirth three centuries later in southern Maryland, USA. It is not so much the monarch it represents or the historical figure who owned it, but the meanings embodied by the artifact and our role in that process that this biography develops. This battered 300 year old figurine beckons us with its props and its demeanor. Through archaeology, its humble roots are extended to worlds inconceivable to its maker. This mini king now

occupies multiple proveniences in several dimensions and embodies intangibles from each context it passes through. Despite its rigid posture, there is nothing static about this figurine. Moments of interaction in the historical past as well as interactions with archaeologists and museologists and cyberspace in the present set the stage for this biography. Comparison with six other contemporary pipe clay kingly figurines and other ceramic forms bearing images of England’s Stuart monarchy reveal the forces that molded the figurine and inhabit it today. This little king’s story begins before it is made

and continues to this day.

Cite this Record

An Enigmatic Monarch: The Biography of a Headless, Mold-made, White Pipe Clay Pipe King Recovered in 17th Century Maryland. Anne Dowling Grulich. 2007 ( tDAR id: 6090) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8542KQC