K
klause
Guest
While mooching around fleabay, killing a bit of time, before putting the chickens to bed for the evening, I came across a listing that caught my eye. It had terrible pictures (2 of 'em) and a description that was not much of a description.
The tarnished metal band, and the shape of the yellow stem tweaked my interest; also, for a change, no obvious rim char really appealed to me. I put on a bid or two, stifled my imagination, strangled my hopes for this pipe, and walked away, forgetting about it.
Then, the other day I got an email telling me I'd won this: Cased Pipe.
I paid the bill, literally the price of a Condor Plug, and set to waiting - again, bludgeoning my hopes and trampling my imagination into submission.
This morning, on the way to work, I stopped off at the post box and picked up a nice small parcel. back in the car, boot to the floor, bends in the road straightened, birds terrified, rabbits left wide-eyed in wonder at the screaming steak of metal, the tail end of which they only caught a glimpse of out of the corner of their eye. I screeched into the carpark, flung myself out of the car and into the office.
By 7:01 am I was grinning like a mentaller, as the sparks of history leapt from the briar to my fingertips, turning into flickering life like images from a magic-lantern in my minds eye........horses, carriages, horseless carriages, trams, black and white films of people walking unnaturally fast, with rapid gestures and strange, but instantly recognisable, clothing....and on, and on, through time to the point where i am sitting at my desk holding this:
Made in Vienna, apparently.
The pipe is hallmarked for Glasgow, 1904, Montague Friedlander. The silver has the MF stamp, and the shank is also stamped MF.
The bowl is immaculate, with some lovely grain visible. There is writing, in ink pen, presumably from the man who made it, on the inside of the walls.
It even has a, a beautiful, pristine, bone tenon.
It will remain this way.
The tarnished metal band, and the shape of the yellow stem tweaked my interest; also, for a change, no obvious rim char really appealed to me. I put on a bid or two, stifled my imagination, strangled my hopes for this pipe, and walked away, forgetting about it.
Then, the other day I got an email telling me I'd won this: Cased Pipe.
I paid the bill, literally the price of a Condor Plug, and set to waiting - again, bludgeoning my hopes and trampling my imagination into submission.
This morning, on the way to work, I stopped off at the post box and picked up a nice small parcel. back in the car, boot to the floor, bends in the road straightened, birds terrified, rabbits left wide-eyed in wonder at the screaming steak of metal, the tail end of which they only caught a glimpse of out of the corner of their eye. I screeched into the carpark, flung myself out of the car and into the office.
By 7:01 am I was grinning like a mentaller, as the sparks of history leapt from the briar to my fingertips, turning into flickering life like images from a magic-lantern in my minds eye........horses, carriages, horseless carriages, trams, black and white films of people walking unnaturally fast, with rapid gestures and strange, but instantly recognisable, clothing....and on, and on, through time to the point where i am sitting at my desk holding this:
Made in Vienna, apparently.
The pipe is hallmarked for Glasgow, 1904, Montague Friedlander. The silver has the MF stamp, and the shank is also stamped MF.
The bowl is immaculate, with some lovely grain visible. There is writing, in ink pen, presumably from the man who made it, on the inside of the walls.
It even has a, a beautiful, pristine, bone tenon.
It will remain this way.
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