Ceramic hillbilly wall hanging with corncob pipe made by Comocraft, Branson, Missouri. 1950s. Comocraft was the name of the concrete slip dripped ware invented by Harold Horine in the 1920s. Obviously someone purchased the name after his death. In the 1950s and 60s they manufactured cast ceramics, many with a hillbilly theme and a paper label that said Comocraft.
Unlike the hillbilly-associated outhouses which have no historic validity, pipe smoking by both sexes was often remarked on by early frontier travelers. The clay pipes of early mountaineers have been replaced by corncob pipes in pop culture renditions.
Illustration of old lady smoking a clay pipe from article, “Through Cumberland Gap on Horseback,” in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, June, 1886, by James Lane Allen. (click to enlarge)
Hill Billy Sack of tobacco circa 1910. (click to enlarge)
Sirocco ware ashtray with pipe holder, 1940s. (click to enlarge)