Help me identify these?

wolfman9 · Mar 8, 2019

I was just given these two pipes by a friend, he didn’t know anything about pipes, and figured I’d enjoy owning them more than he would.
The first one is a very small meerschaum, with sort of a cutty/pickaxe shape, and an odd two piece bowl design, can anybody tell me more about this pipe, the bowl is extremely small, maybe 1/2” by 1/2” dimensions, perhaps for sampling blends or something?

The second is a MM cob, but seems to be quite an old one, the mouthpiece appears to be bone, and threads into the wooden shank, any idea how old this is? I’ve only seen plastic bits on MM pipes before.

Thanks.

craiginthecorn · Mar 8, 2019

Interesting pipes. The first looks to be a sort of calabash, with a cooling chamber beneath. The only other possibility I can come up with is that the upper bowl is intended as a coloring bowl to encourage coloring below, but I doubt it.
Regarding the cob, I would guess it's quite old. How old? If forced to guess, I'd estimate sometime between 1907 and 1930. The use of threaded bone mouthpieces became pretty rare in the first couple of decades of the 20th century, AFAIK. If my estimate is correct, I would think it's pretty rare by now. These pipes were even more disposable than briars and back then, pipes were largely used, abused, and then discarded. And it looks to be in great shape.

wolfman9 · Mar 8, 2019

Thanks for the info, I wouldn’t have known that the cob was possibly that old and potentially rare, I guess I’d best not relegate it to the beater status of a normal cob.

If anybody knows more, I’d love to hear, and in that same vein if anybody collects these old cobs, let me know, as I would be glad to trade it to someone who might appreciate it in their collection.

mikethompson · Mar 8, 2019

What an interesting pair. I can't imagine MM making a cob with a bone mouthpiece now!

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