1800's Swedish Meerschaum Hallmarks - Help Needed

[runscott]

I have a Swedish meerschaum stummel with the '3 crowns' hallmark of Sweden, a city hallmark for Stockholm, a makers mark of 'CGS', and a partial date hallmark (rubbed off consonant followed by '4') indicating that it was made between 1831-54.

Does anyone know if Stockholm used different city marks over time? If I could narrow that hallmark down it would help. Also can't find anything on the CGS maker's mark.

The pipe I'm researching is the top one. Both came with the super-long hookah-style stems. I found an amber-wannabe stem for the bottom one and plan to get it cleaned up and give it a smoke tomorrow. It has no helpful hallmarks - just 'IL' on all three silver pieces, but nothing else;however, they came from the same source and I'm guessing it dates from the same period.

 

[jonasclark]

FYI, these are called "lap pipes" (because of how you smoke them) and would have had a long cherry or "weischel" (a German cherry) wood stem, bark left on, and a horn mouthpiece. Later lap pipes were more like bent billiards; these are the early Turkish-shape.

 

[runscott]

Thanks Jonas. They arrived with stems similar to what you describe.

Is that what you call this shape? Turkish?

 

[verporchting]

Man those are cool looking! I’ve seen several lately on this forum including at least one rather steampunk looking refit that really struck my fancy. Nice find!

 

[runscott]

Man those are cool looking! I’ve seen several lately on this forum including at least one rather steampunk looking refit that really struck my fancy. Nice find!

Thanks. This pipe style is new for me. The bottom one is cleaned and ready to smoke. The metal fittings cleaned nicely with just alcohol, so I see no rush to polish it. I rubbed two coats of Clapham's beeswax polish on the bowl and it brought back some color and shined it up nicely. The real issue was the shank, of course. It turned out to be a wise move picking up thin hand drills, especially the extra-long one - finally busted through the crap and was able to clean it up good.

 

[runscott]

One more photo for documentation's sake, I started working on the bottom one and couldn't stop - ended up completely polishing the silver and finishing up with the meerschaum. Now just need to find a good stem.

 

[verporchting]

Great work! That looks fantastic. Can’t wait to see what stem you can find for it.

 

[runscott]

Both now restored and have found perfectly-fitting Peterson stems for each. I've smoked them both as well - great smokers.

 

[BROBS]

They are Kalmasch pipes

 

[autumnfog]

Beautiful pipes and a piece of history.
I don't know much about their smoking properties but a pipe from the times of H.C. Andersen gives the room atmosphere.

 

[jonasclark]

Yes, and gorgeous! I'm glad they smoke well.