This pipe, came from an estate auction that I shot almost two years ago. While I was happy with the shot, I would like to have the opportunity to shoot another large lot of estate pipes again, I would change a few things.
This pipe is what’s known as a Meerschaum. The word is German, and means, “sea Foam”. The material is is a magnesium silicate clay mineral known as, Sepiolite. Sepiolite, is fairly absorbent and it seems that Spain has large deposits, but for pipe-making, the Eskişehir plains, between Ankara and Istanbul is the most common place to mine Meerschaum.
The color of Meerschaum can vary from white, to off-white, to grey, to light brown. Esthetically, white Meerschaum is the most preferred. It’s use as a material for pipe-making goes back to the early 1700’s. The material is porous and tends to absorb water when the tobacco is smoked, this leads to a “cooler” smoke.
As the pipe is used, oils from the user’s hand, and tar from the tobacco, causes the Meerschaum to take on an amber or brown coloration. The color gets deeper the more the pipe is smoked, until the whole thing will take on the second color.
The Sapiolite, is easily carved and can be finely detailed. This pipe, is known as a “Sultan’s Head” style. Very exotic looking, and probably the most common style when people think about what a Meerschaum pipe looks like. This pipe came from the same estate as the other Meerschaum, and to give a size comparison, the Sultan’s face is approximately 4 inches tall, the pipe carved to look like a hand could be stood on one end and not be as tall.
I bought my first pipes from this same estate. The man’s name was Ken Monk, he was a retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant, and had an enviable collection of pipes. At the time, I had no idea about pipes, and I did not realize how extraordinary his collection was. I bought these two:
The pipe in the top panels was made by the Bari pipe company in Denmark, it is possibly as old as I am. The two bottom panels are of a “Churwarden” pipe, made by Erik Nording. You will need to click into the bottom left panel to see the whole pipe.
Now that I am again looking through the pipes from Ken Monk’s estate, I think that I will need to write a few more posts about pipes.
I recently bought a few more cool pipes, at auction, but I haven’t had a chance to shoot them. One is an unsmoked Meerschaum churchwarden, you’ll be able to see what one looks like, new. I also picked up another Erik Nording!
They are works of art.
I never thought that I would ever smoke a pipe, but shooting these pipes sparked something (so to speak).