A Few of My Well Used Meerschaums From 19th Century

[condorlover1]

Above is a late 1870s pipe made by a London pipe maker just off Fleet Street. It has been repaired quite a few times with sterling silver bands. The last time was in 1989 when the band was added to the bowl to strengthen it after I dropped it on the floor in the Cheshire Cheese pub just off Fleet Street and is famous as Dr. Johnson's preferred hang out! I would love to know if a copy can be made of this in Turkey as I use it every day and could do with a couple of clones of this pipe. If you read my piece Old Meerschaum pipes it explains the process by how the Victorians repaired this type of pipe.

This one is from the late 1880s and is still an excellent pipe 130 years later although the bowl is only good for a twenty minute smoke.

Another meerschaum from 1900 that has a larger bowl which makes for a good smoke while thinking about the world.

I purchased this pipe in 1986 and as you can see how long it can take for meerschaum pipes to totally brown even after 10 lbs Condor.

This is an old favorite of mine. I picked this pipe up in 1990 for Twenty Five Pounds and had the case fully restored by the tobacconists in Holborn, sadly no longer there. The bit is the original heavy gauge amber stem as purchased new. The band around the pipe is engraved "James Flind on your leaving 1894" and I must say this is a delightful pipe to smoke and I am sure the original owner must have cherished it also.
Well thats my contribution to the forum for the night. I have many more and I am forever adding to my collection but these are my favorite pipes so please enjoy, comment and have a good weekend guys.

 

[Perique]

Wow. Beautiful after all these years - or perhaps because of all those years.
I really need to get a Meerschaum...

 

[mikestanley]

Very nice. Thanks for sharing.
Mike S.

 

[wallace]

Fantastic set you have there! Thanks for sharing them with us!

 

[petes03]

Beautiful Meers, thanks for posting!

 

[pitchfork]

Those are very cool. Thanks for sharing the pics. I've gotten into turn-of-the-century briars, lately, but I'm always wary of the heavily smoked meerschaums you often see for sale. As smokers, how do these compare to new meerschaums?

 

[condorlover1]

Hi Pitchfork! Further down the list of topics in this section I posted a short item entitled 'A Few Thoughts on Buying Old Meerschaum Pipes' about a week or so ago. This will tell you everything I do when I buy a pipe and add it to my rotation. This is just my opinion and I am sure other people have their own way of dealing with these ancient pipes. I as a general rule do not buy fancy figurine pipes as they are just too much in the visual overload department.
To answer your question I would say the following is broadly my experience. Older pipes once cleaned and degunked smoke exceedingly well as someone else in the last 100 years has taken the trouble to break the pipe in for you. This is further enhanced by the fact that most 19th century tobacco's were usually some form of twist so the pipe has a faint ghost which is immediately enhanced by smoking Condor or any plain brown or black twist. If you are going to smoke anything else then you might want to inflict that tobacco on one of your briars. Well cared for these types of pipes will give you years of great smoking and will certainly out last you or me.
With regard to new meerschaums I have a couple I have purchased over the years but they require too much work to break them in. The example that appears second from the bottom of the pictures I posted shows how long it can take to color a new meerschaum and thats my progress since 1986! Granted I only smoke this pipe for one day every two months or six times a year due to my rotation but all the same progress has been rather slow with this fellow to say the least. As you can see the heavy dark juices from Condor or twist have been soaked up by the stem and the base of the bowl but little else has been achieved of note since 1998.

 

[pitchfork]

Thanks, condorlover1, I'll have to check out that thread.

 

[oldmannk]

Nice collection. Thanks for the education