Meerschaum

Alas poor Yorick ...

This is a stunning representation of a skull, held in a beautifully carved hand and is a recent addition to my collection. A medium sized pipe, I have seen similar selling for around £300 and more and they are rarely seen in such excellent condition as this one.

In the larger picture below you can better see the detail and quality of the carving. The meerschaum carries on into the stem above the silver cuff and is finished with an amber mouthpiece. On this pipe, there is just the tiniest chip to the very end of the amber mouthpiece and it is usually this amber stem which sustains damage through use. Modern makers normally use plastic stems which are an amber lookalike and are more durable.

It is never easy to date a meerschaum pipe precisely but many were produced during the 19th and into the 20th century. These were never cheap and I know my father would have been jealous of my collection as he always wanted a meerschaum and it took him years (and many holidays abroad) to find one he was happy to pay the price for.

Kaldenberg and Son

Occasionally you are lucky enough to find a piece which can be dated, or at least the date can be narrowed down. This little piece is a pipe rest, the nude is not an attached piece of metal, the whole is one solid piece, with a coating which mimics metal exceptionally well covering the nude.

The entire dish is just 3.25 inches long and 1.5 inches wide.

On the underside is the original label for Kaldenberg and Son, New York, a company which was in business from 1858 until 1893. They worked in meerschaum, ivory and amber and made pipes, cigar holders, canes, ivory combs etc. It's a store I would love to have a time machine to travel back to see. Obviously, this item was made to sit on a gentleman's desk.

The pic of the label below is a little fuzzy but the label itself is a mere 1 inch by 1.25 inches in size.

Ladies and Gentlemen

I guess the shape of a pipe bowl is reminiscent of the human head as there are a great many representations of human heads on meerschaum pipes. The lady here may be a representation of Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III - it is always very difficult to be precise in descriptions as the original paperwork is never present and provenance is rarely established for the meerschaum pipes and cheroot holders you find online.

She is in excellent condition and has been well used, turning her the deepest rich brown, the sort of colour which is keenly sought after. This is more correctly a cheroot holder rather than a pipe and is really quite dainty in size.

This second cheroot holder has hardly been used in its long life and was sold to me as a woman. In fact, what the seller thought was hair is a turban and the representation is of a young man or boy wearing a turban.

It is in almost new condition, a rare occurence with antique meerschaum smoking implements.

In case you are wondering, the little 'chimney' sticking out of the top of the head is to hold cheroots or small cigars. Most do not come off so never try to force one off as you could cause considerable damage in doing so. Most are fixed in position either by a glue or by years of nicotine.

A scary man

I can't really make up my mind what sort of man this is, he could be a farmer. If I knew hat styles then I might have a better idea, he could be a particular character.

Actually, he looks quite scary because he has inlaid eyes, one of which has clearly fallen out at some time and has been replaced upside down, giving him a distinctly cock-eyed look.

As the eyes are glass, I will have to wait for it to come loose as any attempt to take it out to turn round the right way would likely shatter the glass. As this is likely to be old glue, it will eventually deteriorate and loosen the eye.

His hat has the representation of rope or braid round the crown, tied at the back and ending in two small tassles which sit on the brim.

I would guess that all these pipes had names initially but with such antique items, the original names are long lost. The only hope of rediscovering them is to find old catalogues from the Victorian and Edwardian eras and therefore any catalogues which do turn up in auction can prove to be quite valuable.

Never throw out those old magazines and papers from Granny's attic, go through them first to see if anything there is rare. You never know, you could be throwing away a fortune.

Sadly, there is not even a maker's name in his case. The vast majority of antique and vintage meerschaum pipes come in their own specifically shaped case. Quite often the hinges on the cases are loose or broken after many years of use, this is not at all important and it is better to have a faulty case than no case at all.

Horses

Animals are a very popular subject for meerchaum carving and one of the most common is the horse. The pipe to the right was my first meerschaum purchase for the collection, a single horse prancing.

It shows quite clearly the brittle nature of amber, and the vast majority of old meerschaum pipes and cheroot holders have amber stems, where the stem on this has an old break and repair but is also very cracked and therefore quite delicate. This is a fairly small cheroot holder.

Below is a slightly larger cheroot holder with some beautiful carving which doesn't show too well in these pictures. A horse is being chased by a large headed dog. The horse looks a bit panicked and the dog could be a mastiff or something similar. They are forever frozen on the point of conflict. This piece is in perfect condition.

Size matters

Horse's Hoof

While on the subject of horses, the horse's hoof is another quite common carving in meerschaum.

Here we have a small pipe or perhaps cigar holder where the hoof itself is represented in amber and the horse's leg in meerschaum. The actual horseshoe is in solid silver, as is the band around the stem.

Sadly, there has been a break in the amber of the hoof and this piece could do with a little restoration. Perhaps one day I will get around to it as it would be well worth the effort to tidy up the amber hoof.

Dogs

To the right is the smallest meerschaum pipe I have ever seen. You'll have to take my word for it, but it's a little terrier type dog sitting beside a treestump.

The whole pipe is no more than a couple of inches long and I can't believe it was made to be used but it certainly has been used. If I had come across this amongst dolls and bears I would not have been surprised, it is definitely small enough to belong to Papa Bear.

Below is a beautifully carved wooden cheroot holder showing a hunting dog. Why is this in amongst meerschaum? The end is made of meerschaum for that extra cool smoke.

The Eagle's Claw

Another popular subject is the eagle's claw. Frequently shown holding an egg in the talons, the eagles claw is perhaps one of the best ways to show off the art of the meerschaum carver.

To the right (and top of the three below) is a claw apparently holding a glass or cup, this little beauty is only just over three inches long. Second below is another holding an egg (with the extra piece on the end) and the third picture below shows a most delicately carved claw, again holding a cup or glass. Unfortunately this last one has seen some rougher treatment than it could withstand and has several breaks in the delicate carving as well as a break in the stem.

All the carved pieces of the bowl are present and held in place with a temporary bond. The stem has lost some small chips around the break. The best way to restore a broken amber stem is to have a sleeve made to cover both sides of the break. This may not always be possible, depending on where the break happens to be.

A Pair of Fighting Cocks

This is one of the best pieces of carving I have seen and both the cheroot holder and its case are in pristine condition.

A pair of fighting cocks - it was once considered a respectable pastime - near the end of their match, with one cock clearly triumphing over the other. It is a stunning piece of work.

The silver collar is hallmarked for Birmingham (England) 1911, a remarkable survivor, this dainty thing, which has endured in its perfect condition for 100 years, through wars and all manner of changes in fashion. When it was made, the World was very different.

Mountain Goat

Stags are another quite common depiction on meerschaum pipes and cheroot holders but, at the moment, I don't have a stag, I have a mountain goat instead.

This is another fairly small cheroot holder with an amber stem and in excellent condition, surprisingly, as it came to me without a case. I was able to find a case which is only a little large for it and although it once belonged to an entirely different item, the case accomodates the shape of this holder comfortably with a bit of room left over.

If you find a pipe case, don't throw it away, photograph it and put it up for auction online, show the inside of the case and describe its dimensions, you never know, it may be the one someone like me is looking for.

Hands

The human hand is an intricate and delicate carving and so often these are found with bits missing from fingers. It is possible to repair some types of damage but this would be the most difficult and painstaking type of reconstruction you could undertake.

Fortunately, this hand holding the glass is in excellent condition.

As you can see, the glass is made of amber with a meerschaum top and the hand is carved with a cuffed sleeve.

Large Eagle's Claw

This is a huge pipe from late Victorian times, carved as an elaborate eagles claw. The detail is simply exquisite.

Sadly, the amber stem has been broken but this is one pipe I will have repaired one of these days. Very little is missing from the amber stem and so I feel sure that a competent jeweller could repair this pipe by adding an additional silver sleeve over the join which must be made in the amber.

It is perhaps not surprising that the stem has broken, amber is easily damaged and the bowl of this pipe is heavy.

The workmanship on this item is simply stunning and the only damage it has sustained is the broken stem, otherwise it is in wonderful condition.

A 'plain' pipe

This is another style of meerschaum pipe, which seems to be based on the old clay pipes except that it is adorned with silver around both the rim and the stem.

The silver bands are engraved with garlands of flowers and the pipe is hallmarked for Chester 1912.

At some point in its long life, someone has been a bit over-enthusiastic in cleaning the bowl of the pipe and has knocked through a small hole in the underside of the bowl. This is something which could be repaired if someone wanted to use the pipe. A small piece of meerschaum would be carved to fill the missing area and fixed in place.

It is not unusual to find an old repair on a well-loved pipe. Often there is some decoration around the filled area, in the case of this pipe, if the missing area were to be filled, it might be made to look like a representation of a flower. If you spot a random bit of decoration in an odd place on an old pipe it could well be where the pipe has been 'patched', this would not reduce the value of the item in any way.

Cigar Holders

Below are two cigar holders, one is quite modern and unused, the other, heavily embellished with silver, is hallmarked for Chester 1899.

The silver is heavily engraved with a foliate design but, as you can see, the amber stem has suffered considerable damage. Unfortunately, someone has glued the stem back together but one part of the stem is slightly askew. Nevertheless, this is a handsome item and the damage doesn't spoil its value as a display item in the collection.

Black Americana

Among the most sought after pipes with collectors are Negro pipes and here are two examples.

To the right is a straightforward portrait representation of a Black American, beautifully carved in exquisite detail and yet I am not very fond of this one. To me, the face looks pained, the individual portrayed is not a happy man. Below is my favourite pipe and the one I chose to be the lens picture.

He is handsome, he is young and proud, his face is not careworn and he sits on the table in front of me where I can see him all day.

This is also a very large meerschaum pipe, the largest I have, and when all the rest of the collection has eventually changed this pipe and the skull in hand at the top of this lens, will still be with me.

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