A Rumination on the Luxury of Smoking a Meerschaum Pipe

[Briar Lee]

Please read rule 9; Important words in title need to be capitalized.

Forty and more years ago, when there was a Tinderbox in every large city and real tobacco shops in most smaller ones, the meerschaum lined briar pipe had some popularity.

I had some, and wasn’t impressed. The bottoms of the liner tended to break. The entire affair seemed as though it was for a man who wanted the luxury of a meerschaum on the cheap.

Those same pipe shops sold chip meerschaum pipes from Austria for not much money. I have one. It smokes well enough but it won’t color. The point of owning a meerschaum is thaf your pipe will color as you smoke it.

But over the years, my family has given me about a half a dozen real meerschaum pipes, that will color, and come in hand crafted cases. They are all but one extravagantly carved with Sultans and claws and such fantastical things.

When I want a good smoke I smoke a briar, or outside I might smoke a cob.

It’s sort of work, to smoke a block meerschaum. You have to be very careful with it. People point af your pipe and make a fuss over it.

But for pure luxury nothing equals smoking a hand carved meerschaum pipe. You can see how much the thing is coloring, and feel quite privileged to own such a work of art.

Part of the tragedy of the demise of retail pipe shops is who will buy those carved meerschaum pipes for Dad on his birthday or Christmas?

I see cheap meerschaum miniatures for sale online, but what’s to become, of the luxury of smoking a real, full sized, hand carved, block meerschaum pipe?

 

[Chasing Embers]

what’s to become, of the luxury of smoking a real, full sized, hand carved, block meerschaum pipe?

They get shipped to me.

 

[kcghost]

Well, of course, they do!!

 

[telescopes]

I see cheap meerschaum miniatures for sale online, but what’s to become, of the luxury of smoking a real, full sized, hand carved, block meerschaum pipe?

Brer Lee, welcome to this here forum. I encurge you to get up on that thread about whatz youz been a smok’in in September. You do that cause you will see some mighty fine pacific examples of some fine meerschaum pipes. Good ones too. Mighty fine pipes. And theme all made by some mighty fine carvers too.

Eh, oops, that is Briar Lee. Now how did I get you confused with zippity do-dah?

???

Just another Missouri boy here having some fun.

 

[telescopes]

In all seriousness, meerschaum pipes have been under rated and I look forward to seeing a great discussion on them. Thx for bringing up the topic.

 

[OzPiper]

But for pure luxury nothing equals smoking a hand carved meerschaum pipe. You can see how much the thing is coloring, and feel quite privileged to own such a work of art.

I see cheap meerschaum miniatures for sale online, but what’s to become, of the luxury of smoking a real, full sized, hand carved, block meerschaum pipe?

Lots of love for meerschaum pipes on the Forums and lots and lots of posts and pics of members with their meerschaums. There are members who smoke nothing but meerschaums or smoke meerschaums most of the time.

The better quality Austrian meerschaum pipes eg Andreas Bauer and Strambach are still fetching good money today as estates.

Finding good quality meerschaum pipes from reputable carvers and sellers is so much easier these days with the internet than in previous times. Unless you were lucky enough to have a B&M tobacconist who carried a huge range of pipes - I never did. And I don't think there are too many good B&M tobacconists around these days.

So I'm not really sure I get the point of your post. "Back in the days" was not always better.

 

[Briar Lee]

In Springfield Missouri 25 years ago there was a pipe shop near Battlefield Mall where the owner sat behind the counter and puffed on a huge squat meerschaum that had all the colors of the rainbow mixed in with the chocolate brown coloring one expects on a meerschaum.

He sold a lot of fine meerschaums to wives, adult children and mothers to give pipe smokers as presents with that pipe.

Even then most of his larger meerschaums were hundreds of dollars.

I see online you can still buy a substantial sized meerschaum in the one to two hundred dollar range. Time hasn’t been kind to the Turkish lira, I suppose.

He would elaborate how there were several different grades of meerschaums, and within those grades there were several different qualities. It was like buying a Diamond solitaire to buy a meerschaum pipe there.

I wish I had kept a brochure on meerschaum pipe quality he’d hand out.

 

[peregrinus]

 

[tobefrank]

Gearing up for yet another great thread on how things were better in the past? Yawn. I can get almost any pipe I want even though Australia probably only has a handful of brick and mortar pipe and tobacco shops. How? It’s called the internet. How are things better in the past again?

 

[Ahi Ka]

Gearing up for yet another great thread on how things were better in the past? Yawn. I can get almost any pipe I want even though Australia probably only has a handful of brick and mortar pipe and tobacco shops. How? It’s called the internet. How are things better in the past again?

$10aud tins of erinmore? Haha just winding you up bro

 

[tobefrank]

$10aud tins of erinmore? Haha just winding you up bro

Yes, you got me there… it would also be nice if the USD/EUR to AUD exchange rate would be more in our favour.

 

[anotherbob]

Yeah I don't smoke my meers that often. But when I do I wonder why I don't smoke them more. They tend to be more for when I am staying closer to home. And I have to admit I want to drag out the coloring experience for longer. I really like seeing how they color not just the end result. Funny fact my cheap one I think it was about 40 or 50 but less then 60 is coloring beautifully and in layers that seem to be like the translucent ones do.

 

[Ahi Ka]

I’m waiting for @chasingembers to discover his next pipe smoking phase so I can rescue one of the seasonal meers from the trash can

 

[Chasing Embers]

I’m waiting for @chasingembers to discover his next pipe smoking phase so I can rescue one of the seasonal meers from the trash can

They get broken before being thrown out. On the last phase now, once I get the seventh IMP and complete my Halloween and Santa pipes from Jason I'm out. Starting a business is going to consume most of my income.

 

[OzPiper]

I see online you can still buy a substantial sized meerschaum in the one to two hundred dollar range. Time hasn’t been kind to the Turkish lira, I suppose.

He would elaborate how there were several different grades of meerschaums, and within those grades there were several different qualities. It was like buying a Diamond solitaire to buy a meerschaum pipe there.

Lots of factors determining prices:

1) Trends - things come in and go out of fashion.

2) Prices go up and down according to demand and supply

3) Turkey has much lower labour costs than Austria, England or France. As Turkey produces almost all the world's supply of meerschaum there is minimal associated costs such as transport and excise duty.

4) A "recognised" carver can charge more than a "no name or lesser known carver". The price differential has yet to reach the disparity between a "high end" Danish maker eg Bo Nordh and a factory Stanwell or Savinelli.

5) The grade of meerschaum obviously has a huge impact - highest grade translucent is going to cost way more than pressed meerschaum

6) Other market factors - a wife or children buying a present may be induced to pay a bit more as it is a present. A "good" salesperson can get customers to part with more money than they should spend (depends on their honesty).

7) With internet sales being very much the norm, it is so easier to compare prices and products. One can get better deals than buying from a B&M tobacconists with their more fewer choices.

Having said all of the above, I still miss the days when you can walk into a shop and get the personal attention and benefit of the proprietor's years of accummulated knowledge.

But hey, this is where this Pipesmagazine Forums come in - you have the benefit of tapping into the knowledge and wisdom of a whole community as opposed to the one salesperson

 

[Chasing Embers]

The price differential has yet to reach the disparity between a "high end" Danish maker eg Bo Nordh and a factory Stanwell or Savinelli.

 

[tobefrank]

Starting a business is going to consume most of my income.

What’s the new business? As a small business owner myself I’m always interested to hear about people starting a business.

 

[Briar Lee]

I wish I’d discovered this forum before the third delta wave hit a town with a 21% vaccination rate.

One of my meerschaums is a Paykoc

I see where they still sell them.

Shop All - Page 1 - Paykoc Pipes

paykocpipes.com

I’m trying to think if I ever, have bought myself a meerschaum and I think the only two are my cheap pressed chip meerschaum and a smooth three quarter bent billiard, and neither will color.

My elaborately carved CAO Bekler my family gave me one birthday isthe best one I own, and the reason I started shopping at that pipe shop in Springfield.

The proprietor of that Springfield pipe shop had a huuuuuge CAO meerschaum in front of him, and his adult son also worked there during the store’s heyday.


I bought a lot of Savanelli and GBD and Peterson and Stanwell pipes there, and they also did a brisk business in high end Danish new and estate pipes.

They had to move a lot of pipes and fine cigars to pay rent on that store in a new strip mall directly across from the center entrance to Battlefield Mall.

I’ll bet his meerschaum brochure was by CAO. I can remember these points it made:

1. Buy from a trusted seller. All meerschaum looks alike to a novice and low quality carving is cheap.

2. The highest quality meerschaum is very porous, very light, white to being translucent, comes from very deep in the ground, and is geometrically more expensive than lower grades. Better meerschaum smoked better because it absorbed more tars and nicotine, and only higher quality meerschaum colors easily and evenly, without flaking.

3. The best carvers sign their work, and will refuse to carve inferior meerschaum.

In order to sell meerschaums, the potential customer saw that huge CAO out on the counter, and the owner would start showing meerschaums behind a glass counter that began at only $200.

If I recall correctly he had the most $400 to $600 meerschaums of all, and quite a few thousand dollar ones, of which his counter pipe was representative of.

But in comparison with a diamond solitaire, they were all cheap.

Perhaps more meerschaums are sold now over the internet, but that man’s profit came from delivering blue ribbon service as a purveyor of a rare luxury.

 

[winton]

I have five meers from a friend, I met at the Chicago Pipe Show. Each year, I buy another.

 

[Briar Lee]

I have five meers from a friend, I met at the Chicago Pipe Show. Each year, I buy another.

All my life I’ve sort of wanted to be old enough so people wouldn’t say aren’t you young to be smoking a pipe?.

That time has arrived.

A well dressed lawyer must spend a thousand dollars for his custom, tailor made suit, and that’s been true for thirty years. What’s strange is that the internet has increased the quality and thread count of the thousand dollar suit.

If I could find the time, to travel to a big pipe show with a thousand dollars cash and there was a meerschaum seller feller there,,,

I’d reckon a thousand will still buy a huge meerschaum that’s light as a feather, fabulously carved, that sits on a desk and emits a thousand dollar glow of luxury.

But you’d have to buy it like you do a thousand dollar suit, in person from a man who showed you many samples and he’d own one you’d say I want me one like that one, myself.