I vaguely remembered seeing an odd old ceramic pipe in a local antique store several years ago, and seeing an article recently (this one: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.131730833577955.35067.101191206631918&type=1 ) I realized that was what I had seen. I remembered it being about $100, so I went back; that's a bit out of my range for a pipe that's not meerschaum, but I wanted a look.
The article says they're most common in black and brown, less so in terra-cotta and red, and "occasionally" in blue or green. I found some closed auctions on eBay and posts elsewhere showing terra-cotta, mottled brown, and black ones. They usually seem to have a scalloped metal sleeve on the bowl with a hinged wind-cap, and some have a metal band around the end of the shank, presumably to prevent cracks.
Here's that I found when I returned to the shop. The owner, who remembered my coming in and looking at it way back then, offered it to me for $50. I accepted.
The bowl is glazed in cream color with softly-dappled green swirl patterns, the cream becoming a sort of buttercream yellow behind the green areas. The shell bottom and shank are black, with a tiny hint of gold on the scallops. The wind-cap has eight slots around the edge and a nice curled clasp that snaps down; I've seen photos of very plain bands on the bowl, solid with a scalloped lower edge, and some very ornate pierced ones, and this is somewhere in the middle, plain with a fancy, pierced border. The inside of the cap has "ECHT NICKEL" (genuine nickel) stamped in big block letters.
The maker's mark, stamped into the shank and gold-glazed, is "PARTSCH," which that article tells me is Anton Partsch. There is also, up on the lower part of the bowl, a gold oval stamp with a soft pattern in the center, I assume the maker's company sigil. The shank has a plain metal band, with a loop for a cord.
It has a bark-covered wood stem, with a cork-and-reed tip on the bottom and a turned horn ferrule (which has a tiny age crack) on top and a wooden mouthpiece (on closer examination just now, the lip is translucent under a very bright, focused light, so I think this must also be horn). The stem is kept with the bowl by a brown string or cord, tied around the mouthpiece and ending in two tassels, like many of the German wood and porcelain pipes.
The inside of the wind-cap was crusty and black, the inside of the bowl had a thin, crumbly cake, and the draft hole was partly plugged by some probably very old un-burned tobacco! I used a very blunt spoon of a pipe multi-tool (appropriately, one of the common Czech ones) to gently knock away ALL of the cake - I don't think clays need cake, necessarily - as well as the gunk in the wind-cap, and used the tool's pick to clean the draft. It's still clearly smoked inside, but if I do light it, I won't be smoking on someone else's old tobacco-- who knows how long it's been since someone lit this!
My questions are:
--Does anyone know when this was made, approximately-- or when Anton Partsch was active? Apparently, at least one maker produced until 1959, but is this late 19th century? Early or mid 20th? This could be the oldest pipe I own.
--Is $50 a fair price, a great steal, not-so-good? Is it really rarer in this sort of finish?
Either way, I really like it. I think I heard or read somewhere that these were popular in the Austrian coffee-houses, and that's what I imagine whewn I hold this pipe.
The article says they're most common in black and brown, less so in terra-cotta and red, and "occasionally" in blue or green. I found some closed auctions on eBay and posts elsewhere showing terra-cotta, mottled brown, and black ones. They usually seem to have a scalloped metal sleeve on the bowl with a hinged wind-cap, and some have a metal band around the end of the shank, presumably to prevent cracks.
Here's that I found when I returned to the shop. The owner, who remembered my coming in and looking at it way back then, offered it to me for $50. I accepted.
The bowl is glazed in cream color with softly-dappled green swirl patterns, the cream becoming a sort of buttercream yellow behind the green areas. The shell bottom and shank are black, with a tiny hint of gold on the scallops. The wind-cap has eight slots around the edge and a nice curled clasp that snaps down; I've seen photos of very plain bands on the bowl, solid with a scalloped lower edge, and some very ornate pierced ones, and this is somewhere in the middle, plain with a fancy, pierced border. The inside of the cap has "ECHT NICKEL" (genuine nickel) stamped in big block letters.
The maker's mark, stamped into the shank and gold-glazed, is "PARTSCH," which that article tells me is Anton Partsch. There is also, up on the lower part of the bowl, a gold oval stamp with a soft pattern in the center, I assume the maker's company sigil. The shank has a plain metal band, with a loop for a cord.
It has a bark-covered wood stem, with a cork-and-reed tip on the bottom and a turned horn ferrule (which has a tiny age crack) on top and a wooden mouthpiece (on closer examination just now, the lip is translucent under a very bright, focused light, so I think this must also be horn). The stem is kept with the bowl by a brown string or cord, tied around the mouthpiece and ending in two tassels, like many of the German wood and porcelain pipes.
The inside of the wind-cap was crusty and black, the inside of the bowl had a thin, crumbly cake, and the draft hole was partly plugged by some probably very old un-burned tobacco! I used a very blunt spoon of a pipe multi-tool (appropriately, one of the common Czech ones) to gently knock away ALL of the cake - I don't think clays need cake, necessarily - as well as the gunk in the wind-cap, and used the tool's pick to clean the draft. It's still clearly smoked inside, but if I do light it, I won't be smoking on someone else's old tobacco-- who knows how long it's been since someone lit this!
My questions are:
--Does anyone know when this was made, approximately-- or when Anton Partsch was active? Apparently, at least one maker produced until 1959, but is this late 19th century? Early or mid 20th? This could be the oldest pipe I own.
--Is $50 a fair price, a great steal, not-so-good? Is it really rarer in this sort of finish?
Either way, I really like it. I think I heard or read somewhere that these were popular in the Austrian coffee-houses, and that's what I imagine whewn I hold this pipe.
