You all know me and my love of meerschaum 'cutty' pipes. Well I thought I would share this one with you before it is packed off to Briarville for our good and talented pipe dude Rick to fix it up. I actually thought this one was going to be a little smaller but it turned out be yet another titan pipe with a very deep bowl. In fact this one has the obligatory shirt button stuck in the bottom of the bowl which will have to be removed. I started to clean out the bowl this evening and this pipe has 1/8 inch thickness of carbon coating the inside of the pipe so this is definitely a job for the 'R' team down at Briarville. Other repairs are fairly obvious to spot in that the pipe will need a new bone tenion and it goes without saying a new stem. In this case I am really drawn to a dark yellow stem material as opposed to the normal tortoise shell patterns I usually favor so I am very excited to see how this pipe comes out. The only other thing required is the obligatory fixing of the case which in reality needs new hinges but I might, depending on how the pipe comes out have a new case made for it. What totally intrigues me is the date on the silver band on the pipes shank which reads 'Xmas 1881' with some other decorative details. It makes you wonder where this pipe has been for the last 135 years as the seller said it had been found in a house clearance so it must of had some sentimental value to someone who died a long time ago. Its interesting to think that someone was smoking this pipe a full eight years before the Whitechapel murders got underway with Jack 'ripping' his way across the East End of London. When I get it back from Briarville I will post the pictures with it fully restored so that you can enjoy it with its new stem.