When first introduced to England in the late 1500s, tobacco was expensive and heavily taxed. Increasing production, in America and also in the Caribbean, meant the amount imported increased and the price fell, so that anyone, rich or poor, could afford to smoke.

Clay pipes were mass-produced, cheap and reusable. The small bowl reflects the high cost of tobacco in the 1700s: as the price fell the size of the bowl increased. There were many pipe manufacturers in Bristol, and pipes were exported in the trading cargoes of slaving ships and to the colonists in North America and the Caribbean.