My attitude is that pipes are meant to be smoked and was thinking that as I read your post . . . until I saw the pic.
Wow, what a pipe. Yes, I see your dilemma.
I've not anything so fancy but if I did choose to light up a piece of art like yours, I'd only smoke it sitting in my lounge chair where if it did fall, it would land on the carpet.
From what I can tell from the pic it's in really good condition.
Although I have a little experience restoring and cleaning estate pipes, no way would I even attempt to clean yours [in case I did something stupid] so would definitely send yours to a professional.
The note suggests it was gifted in 1914. Apart from that I have no idea [at a guess I'd say it was a gift from one friend to another]
Do you mind sharing what a magnificent pipe like that costs?