A collection of elaborately carved folk art pipes from the US civil war-era will be sold at part of Cowan's Fine & Decorative Art Auction on July 13-14 in Ohio.
 The Jeff Davis was a Confederate gunboat, but it is uncertain as to why Dodds has carved its name on the pipe |
The patriotic pipes feature scenes from the war and some are engraved with the names of the soldiers who would have puffed on them in the 1860s.
Leading bids is a massive briar pipe that is carved with a relief banner reading, "Gunboat Jeff Davis Captain J L Dodds", which is expected to sell for $2,500-3,500. It previously sold for $4,112 with the same auction house in 2010.
Dodds was among those Confederates captured at the Battle of Sayler's Creek, though the association with the gunboat Jeff Davis is unknown as he never a combatant on the Mississippi.
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