A NOS Irvin S Cobb Pipe

[Briar Lee]

Missouri Meerscahum wound up the last maker of cob pipes in Missouri.

But at one time there were about a dozen major, important cob pipe makers in Washington besides Missouri Meerschsum. Plus Phoenix American made millions of cob pipes a year in Cooper County not far upriver.

As the market shrank after 1950 the survivors consolidated and Missouri Meerschsaum bought out many of their competitors.

The last major competition in Washington was H&B who made the popular Irvin S Cobb model.

There really was, an Irvin S Cobb, the highest paid staff reporter of his day in the United States.

Irvin S. Cobb - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Missouri Meerschaum continued to produce the Irvin S Cobb model so long as sales would support it, for years after the sale to MM about 1978.

I have two of these now, both old stock. The “gimmick” with an Irvin S Cobb was they were toasted with a red hot iron to break them in and supposedly toughen the cob.

This one could be MM production except that’s a very large and fancy stem and ferrule to keep in the parts bin for one model.






These are thirteen dollars online so long as that stash lasts. That’s a little cheaper than a bent MM General this one looks the same size as. From the description this one was a moose of a cob pipe:
——
Length: 6 1/8 inches

Bowl Height: 2 1/4 inches

Chamber Diameter: 7/8 inch

Weight: 1.7 ounces

——

My other Irvin S Cobb is much more “Legend” looking, with a different bottom sticker, and a lot smaller.

 

[Coreios]

I love your threads like this. I've read several of them and knew an estate pipe because of you. Thanks, very informative.

 

[newbroom]

When I first started smoking a pipe I also found this website which provided me with knowledge and incentive (disorders) and I began to buy old pipes on ebay. One of my first 'wins' in the bidding wars was for a group of old corn cobs for about $10.00. Among these old pipes was a NOS Irwin S. Cobb pot looking cob, which I sent off to one of our members who had sent me tobacco. Ironically, his handle is Cobguy!

 

[Briar Lee]

I love your threads like this. I've read several of them and knew an estate pipe because of you. Thanks, very informative.

To further add to this new old stock pipe’s story the seller is a pawn shop in Washington Missouri that handles new Missouri Meerschaum pipes.

They responded to my question of who made it with the information it was pre merger, made by H&B, which means before 1978. They had five perfect ones.

The margin of profit while MM had competition must have been less than today, when effectively they have a monopoly on high quality commercial cob pipes. But even now, the Legend is the largest seller followed by the Washington, which is slightly more money and slightly larger.

Those pipes may have slept in an old box of an employee of H&B for fifty years or were found in an old store that closed years ago or maybe they were from the attic of Missouri Meerschaum.

They are worth about twenty per cent less than a brand new bent General today.

 

[MattRVA]

I ran across some old beat up Phoenix cobs in a consignment store a few years ago. I really like old cobs, thanks for posting.

 

[Briar Lee]

I ran across some old beat up Phoenix cobs in a consignment store a few years ago. I really like old cobs, thanks for posting.

Some trivia I remember from the MM museum.

The hard times of the thirties were boom times for cob pipes.

One reason was tobacco prices collapsed. Even Prince Albert lowered their price to a dime, Bull Durham down to a nickel.

Then as times slowly got better people could spend more on nicer cobs and better tobacco.

At the peak Missouri Meerschaum shippped over two million cob pipes a month in the same factory they use today. And the others shipped millions a month as well.

As the market contracted MM bought out all the survivors, and then finally the demand seems to have stabilized at about sixty thousand a month.

 

[Briar Lee]

Of all the cobs I own this one is the highest quality, other than my three Freehands.

The entire cob industry from the start depended on high grade cobs that didn’t burn out in a few smokes.

In the late forties MM developed a hybrid corn with small kernels that meant tight grain structure. This one is the tightest and most regular of all my cobs. H&B must have developed their own hybrid, or were super selective about their flagship Irvin S Cobb large pipe.

Also, a cob pipe comes natural, filled, or double filled. This one is at least double filled, varnished and polished. This made a hard surfaced pipe, less likely to chip off flakes of cob.



This one has a hickory shank and a gold electroplate ferrule plus the best imitation amber plastic stem I’ve ever seen, which accepts the standard filter.



It came toasted and the bore drilling is flawless leaving thin and attractive bowl walls.




MM could make cob pipes to this quality level but seldom did.