Vercingetorix Meerschaum Pipes

[runscott]

I've collected briar figurals by Dalloz and Lamberthod for a while, and had acquired four briar Vercingetorix pipes before acquiring my first meerschaum Vercingetorix (top picture, left).

Today a second one arrived, from France. I'm fairly certain it's by the same carver. It has some big problems with the amber stem, and also a broken shank.

Many different carvers created these in the late 19th century - there are some incredible ones on this site: Amsterdam Pipe Museum - Vercingetorix

Anyone else have one of these?

 

[TheIronMonkey]

I've collected briar figurals by Dalloz and Lamberthod for a while, and had acquired four briar Vercingetorix pipes before acquiring my first meerschaum Vercingetorix (top picture, left).

Today a second one arrived, from France. I'm fairly certain it's by the same carver. It has some big problems with the amber stem, and also a broken shank.

Many different carvers created these in the late 19th century - there are some incredible ones on this site: Amsterdam Pipe Museum - Vercingetorix

Anyone else have one of these?

Both of these are lovely pieces; the facial structure of both is very similar, but the details of the carvings don’t come across as the same artist to me—the details of the eyes and flow of the hair (depiction of the pupil and iris and moustache and hair much more flowing and graceful on the darker one) are very different.

I have been trying to find a nice Vercingetorix pipe for awhile, but I most often come across crudely carved ones that have no appeal to me.

 

[runscott]

Both of these are lovely pieces; the facial structure of both is very similar, but the details of the carvings don’t come across as the same artist to me—the details of the eyes and flow of the hair (depiction of the pupil and iris and moustache and hair much more flowing and graceful on the darker one) are very different.

I have been trying to find a nice Vercingetorix pipe for awhile, but I most often come across crudely carved ones that have no appeal to me.

Thanks. You have to keep in mind that when a carver was doing repeated copies of the same design, they almost always varied it a little, for various reasons you can imagine. In the case of the Vercingetorix meers, I haven't seen any two that were as close in overall design as these two. It's possible that one shop had a single design, and multiple carvers were working from it. Check out the various examples on that Amsterdam Museum link I posted - the variety is pretty amazing and I don't see any two that I believe were done by the same carver, or that were anywhere as close to the same design as the two I have.

Not that it matters!

 

[AroEnglish]

I don't normally appreciate face carvings as they look a bit too crude/sloppy but these two look quite elegant.

 

[FurCoat]

Exquisite pipes.

 

[runscott]

I don't normally appreciate face carvings as they look a bit too crude/sloppy but these two look quite elegant.

Did you check out the 'Amsterdam pipe museum' photos? Those pipes are incredible.

 

[mortonbriar]

By toutatis, those are great!

 

[condorlover1]

Nice carving. I think they might be colored at the time of carving but I may be totally wrong. You have some shank damage that has been repaired probably with 19th century 'meerschaum cement' and may warrant silver banding. New stem will either be needed as well, although I would be interested to see the rest of the stem as it might be salvageable. How are the cases since in my experience those seem to take the brunt of the daily abuse.

 

[AroEnglish]

Did you check out the 'Amsterdam pipe museum' photos? Those pipes are incredible.

I have not; thanks for the tip!

 

[Sigmund]

Cool pipes. I dont know where you shop from but ebay france always has a boat load of carved old pipes on the cheap. many have no stems. If you see something you like well enough and have a pipe maker on board you might want to look at them.

 

[runscott]

Cool pipes. I dont know where you shop from but ebay france always has a boat load of carved old pipes on the cheap. many have no stems. If you see something you like well enough and have a pipe maker on board you might want to look at them.

Good suggestion. I've bought a few from France over the years. I have hundreds of old pipe stems and 300 or so bone tenons, so can usually match something up that looks good.

The one that looks good is in almost perfect condition. I've done so many repairs lately that I'll probably leave the broken stem one alone indefinitely.

 

[kcghost]

The look like very nice pipes to look at. Hope you can get them repaired.

 

[runscott]

The look like very nice pipes to look at. Hope you can get them repaired.

They are really too heavy to smoke, in my opinion. I never acquire a pipe unless I think the repair work is within my abilities. This one is definitely stretching things!

 

[runscott]

Job done. Toothbrush and water to clean the stummel.

The tenon was conical with threads on both ends. I removed it, found a good replacement stem, and very luckily found a bone tenon that matched both ends.

The shank repair was unexpectedly simple. As ugly as the repair area looked, the person who did it actually got the two ends to match up very closely. I carefully cut away all excess glue, then filled the cracks with amber CA glue. In two places I had 1/5" cracks that went all the way through, resulting in glue dripping onto an inserted pipe-cleaner. After it dried I trimmed off the excess and filed/sanded almost smooth.

I then rubbed in beeswax polish, let it dry overnight, then used the heat gun. This initially brought back all the cherry color, but then the stummel dried and the area at the repair end turned grey. I then did something that I've had to do many times, so I was confident it would work: rubbed beeswax into the grey area, immediately bringing back the cherry color. Polished, it returned grey, rubbed in more polish, repeated. I then rubbed in Jojoba several times with a saturated cloth, letting it dry, repeating several times until the grey areas did not return.

I could add more CA glue to the crack area and sand until perfectly smooth; however, there's a chance I would get too far into the coloring and lose it forever. So I'm stopping. Oddly the repair area looks much more pronounced in these photos, then it does in real life. I guess it's sunlight reflecting.

Next step will be to cut away the tenon end of the original amber stem and add a 1/2" replacement piece. Just need to find the right piece of amber. Once done the pipe will again fit in its case.

 

[runscott]

A side shot:

 

[jhowell]

Well done!

 

[runscott]

Well done!

Thanks. Today was supposed to be all-day salmon fishing, but since that fell through, I'm repairing the original amber stem. Hoping to have that done in a couple of days (lots of glue layering).

 

[jhowell]

Kicker betwee

Thanks. Today was supposed to be all-day salmon fishing, but since that fell through, I'm repairing the original amber stem. Hoping to have that done in a couple of days (lots of glue layering).

Kicker between coats moves things along much quicker.