At Haddon there are a great number of these pipe heads of several dates, and every one is different from the rest; some are plain and small, others great spreading things elaborately decorated. The [general form] of these is constructed like a box from cast sheet lead, the cornices are beaten to their shape over a pattern; and the top edge is cut into a little fringe of crenellations. Cast discs of ornament, badges, pendant knobs, and initials are arranged on their fronts, on the funnel-shaped portion leading to the pipe, and on the ears of the pipe and the side flaps of the head itself. The [more elaborate] heads have an outer casing of lead with panels pierced through it of delicate tracery work of Gothic tradition which shows bright against the shadow.
Figs. 68 and 69.—Pipe Heads, Haddon Hall.
Fig. 70.—Pipe head, Haddon.
At Windsor Castle some pipe heads bear the date 1589, the Tudor rose, and the letters E. R.
Fig. 71.—Bodleian, Oxford.
Fig. 72.—St. John’s, Oxford.