Dr. Ted Brasser compiled some notes on this piece in February 1996 and the following comments are based on his report. This finely carved early wood effigy pipe stem is undoubtedly of Eastern Woodlands origin, but because it is unlike other examples of the period, it is difficult to place it precisely. Although most surviving examples are made of stone, wood specimens are known from the Iroquois, the Wyandot, the Eastern Great Lakes Ojibwa and the Cherokee.

Dr. Brasser writes of its sculptural components and style as follows:

"One of the most striking features of this exceptionally fine carving is the beautiful and smooth delineation of the figure. In these respects it is most reminiscent of a wooden figure presumably originating from the lower Misssissipi region (Ewers, 1986, pl. 3), and several animal-shaped wooden bowls from the Illinois region. The soft body treatment of our study subject is also noticeable on a wooden pipe shaped like a nude female, of Creek or Cherokee origin (ibid., p. 127, no. 79). Typical for the Southeast are also the nut-shaped and strongly delineated eyes of our pipe bowl... It [therefore] seems that there are particularly...strong pointers to the southeastern United States, the Ohio-Illinos region...or perhaps the adjoining southern periphery of the Great Lakes... I believe that this beautiful pipe bowl was maded in a region strongly influenced by southeastern traditions, but also within reach of artistic developments in the Great Lakes area, the artist possibly an Illinois or Shawnee Indian in the second half of the 18th century."