As many of you all know, I love finding a vintage corn cob pipe. Here's one of my recent finds, an Owensville, MO bamboo stem cob pipe by U. P. Co. What struck me about this antique cob is the fact that proportionally it is very similar in size to our Old Dominion Virginia Planter cob pipe including having the same size 5/8" dia. chamber and the exact same length bamboo stem. It's a rather unusual cob in the fact that it appears to be lacquered similar to a period MM but without the application of Plaster of Paris. It appears that they simply took a natural cob and applied a lacquer coating over it. So far I haven't been able to find out much about this company other than the fact that I found an online reference to a cob pipe factory having once been a source of employment for the townsfolk in Owensville. My guess is that this company marketed their pipe in this fashion as they couldn't use the Plaster of Paris process at the time without infringing upon Henry Tibbe's patented process. However, this is just conjecture on my part, based on the small cob size and period label which would make me want to date this to the late 19th century when Henry Tibbe's U.S. patent would still have been in effect.
The first pic below shows the pipe next to one of my Old Dominion Virginia Planter cobs for size comparison and the second pic shows the company label.
The first pic below shows the pipe next to one of my Old Dominion Virginia Planter cobs for size comparison and the second pic shows the company label.
