A Massive Meerschaum Arrived Today...

[Briar Boy]

A very large antique Austrian meerschaum arrived today, after several hours of cleaning, polishing and reaming two centuries of carbon from the bowl, it looks great for it's age, I believe the metal work to be made of silver and the bow/feather in the hat cap may be made of gold, the bowl alone weighs in at over 12 ounces! I will have to fabricate a new mouth piece for it but the main stem (Cherry branch) is in excellent condition, the photo doesn't convey the scale of the pipe, it is massive, can't wait to smoke it...

 

[irish]

Very cool . That is a very good looking old pipe . I hope it smokes good for you sir ! :puffpipe:

 

[gwtwdbss]

Looks Great. Congrats!

 

[cmdrmcbragg]

That is a really sweet pipe. Lots of age to it. Would like to see it with the new stem.

 

[kashmir]

A very nice piece. Any stamping on it? Or an idea of the age?

 

[Briar Boy]

[/quote]A very nice piece. Any stamping on it? Or an idea of the age?

The the only markings I see are the metal hallmarks which are two letters that I really can't make out, I'm guess around at least 150 years old (just a guess)

 

[weezell]

WOW!!!! Is an understatement. One hell of a pipe...

 

[petes03]

Wow, it's beautiful! Congrats on it, and I can't wait to see it after you make a new stem for it!

Can you put a regular pipe next to it to show its size?

 

[shaintiques]

I actually have two large similar meer bowls that I am supposed to restore for someone, yours looks amazing. What did you clean the outside of the bowl with? That is a spectacular piece excited for you. What a beauty!

 

[Briar Boy]

[quoteI actually have two large similar meer bowls that I am supposed to restore for someone, yours looks amazing. What did you clean the outside of the bowl with? That is a spectacular piece excited for you. What a beauty!

The meerschaum wasn't too dirty and still has some wax on it so basically just rubbed it with a t-shirt to get it shiny, the metal was the hard part, a stiff bristle tooth brush and some Blue magic metal polish followed by Nevr-dull wadding and several hours of rubbing & scrubbing, I actually prefer Flitz polish but didn't have any on hand.

 

[tinpan]

Wow, that looks very nice

 

[numbersix]

That is gorgeous! I can't tell, is the stem removed? or is it Missing?

 

[Briar Boy]

That is gorgeous! I can't tell, is the stem removed? or is it Missing?

This is just the bowl, a long Cherrywood stem that fits into the silver funnel on the shank (which is not pictured)

I will post some photos once I get the stem repaired.

 

[deyro]

That's beautiful. I have one of a similar size, but not nearly as ornate or as well colored. I bought a bag full of old cherry stems at an estate sale and my brother in law wound up buying the bowl at the same sale and gave it to me as a christmas gift a couple years ago. I reunited it with it's stem and I love it, but it takes about two hours to smoke a whole bowl. enjoy.

 

[Briar Boy]

I finished the new mouthpiece today, I used African Blackwood and made a 2" extension and made the 3 ¾" mouthpiece from German Cumberland material, I tried to keep it somewhat traditional, the bead work is made of Horn, bone and metal, I am extremely pleased with how it turn out, approximately 24" overall length..

 

[mso489]

That's quite a pipe. The metalwork is impressive. Does the bowl lid have vent holes, or is it just to

protect the tobacco before it is smoked, or smoked up? There's a story behind this one. It was a

specific strata of society that could afford to buy and smoke a pipe like this.

 

[Briar Boy]

That's quite a pipe. The metalwork is impressive. Does the bowl lid have vent holes, or is it just to

protect the tobacco before it is smoked, or smoked up? There's a story behind this one. It was a

specific strata of society that could afford to buy and smoke a pipe like this.

Yes there are small vents in the rim of the "hat", wish I could know it's history, a real pleasure to be able to bring it back to smokable condition.

 

[voorhees]

If the two letter are BB. it could be "Benjamin Barling" and you'd have one very old and possibly valuable pipe.
see down the page. very much like yours.
http://www.pipedia.org/wiki/Barling

 

[brian64]

Wow...very nice. Impressive and interesting meer...great restoration job. Congrats!

 

[numbersix]

Impressive work on that stem - congrats!