Immortalised: Mrs Sarah Wilson, poetess

pipes2, originally uploaded by natalieben.

Apologies to Sharon (see previous pipe post comments for explanation), this is a collection of late 19th and early 20th-century figurative pipes.

The one on the top right is described as "Mrs Sarah Wilson, poetess". An extensive web search (not helped by the fact there is a modern poet of that name), found only one possible book of hers, a children's book, Early Recollections, or Scenes from Nature. Intended for Children. This source suggests that her maiden name was Atkins. Anyone know anything more?

She must have been quite well known in her own time, for this is described as "an expensive portrait clay produced from a three-piece mould and finished in baked varnish".

The others are described as, from top left, "a proud lady, a lady motorist, King Edward VII, William Gladstone, Ally Sloper". [More on the last, of whom I had not previously heard, here.]

From Clay Tobacco Pipes, Eric G. Ayto, Shire, 2002. (Illustration from page 18)

In case you want some more information, try the Society for Clay Pipe Research. (No I didn't make that up, I promise.)