File:ESS-FF0854 Post Medieval pipe tamper (FindID 240845).jpg

English: Incomplete, cast copper alloy pipe tamper. The tamper takes the form of a claw hammer, though half the claw is now missing. The hammer head is complete and is formed from a decorative arrangement of beads and reels. To either side of the head is a double ring and dot motif. The hammer head is attached to a hollow cylindrical shaft that is decorated along its length with incised circumfral lines, inside and out. There are two small holes where it is damaged. To one upper side of the shaft is a small, deliberate, circular piercing and there is a larger circular piercing to the top of the hammer head, presumably where the tamper would have been fixed. The whole object is 48.62mm in length and weighs 23.05g. The hammer head is 47.35mm long, 9.78mm wide. The shaft is 38.31mm long and 11.02mm in diameter at the widest (lowest) point. The cylindrical shaft would have allowed attachment of the hammer to a wooden or perhaps bone handle, the now missing tamper projecting from the top of the block enabling the tamping down of tobacco in a clay pipe. There are a number of examples recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database, notably SF-D1CBA3, LANCUM-1B7A36, SUSS-8CAED1, SUR-3B28F4 and SUR-013852, all of which have similar form and decoration. These indicate a date of c.1600-1850.