Earlier this month, we asked Twitter to help us identify a clay pipe that was found in our recent apple-arch dig. The object is a clay tobacco pipe - a pipe for smoking tobacco - and the image depicted on it is of Ally Sloper, a 19th century comic character.
Ally Sloper, a famous comic, depicted on this clay pipe
Alexander "Ally" Sloper is the eponymous fictional character of the comic strip Ally Sloper. He is one of the earliest comic strip characters and he is regarded as the first recurring character in comics.
The derelict Ally Sloper clay pipe seen from the profile
Red-nosed and blustery, an archetypal lazy schemer often found "sloping" through alleys to avoid his landlord and other creditors, he was created for the British magazine Judy by writer Charles H. Ross, and later fully illustrated by his French wife Émilie de Tessier—a rare woman comic-strip artist at the time—under the pseudonym "Marie Duval". After gaining incredible success, a spin off of his own comic, “Ally Sloper's Half Holiday” was created in 1884. Sloper’s influence even reached W. C. Fields and Charlie Chaplin, who created the character "little tramp".
The infamously red-nosed Ally Sloper comic, ca. 1884
The arrival of the First World War in 1914 saw severe paper rationing, and in 1916 the Half Holiday comic ceased production. Attempts after the war to revive Sloper proved short-lived, as Sloper was more of a Victorian and Edwardian comic and did not fit into the new post-war world.
Now that we know what the peculiar clay pipe depicts, we have yet to figure out how it ended up in the grounds of the Walled Garden… Any suggestions? Comment below and let us know!
The photos were taken by our marketing manager Neil Hassall.