An Odd Old French Pipe With Expansion Chamber

[misterlowercase]

...just goes to show that there's not much new under the sun.
This design seems to be an attempt to take advantage of reverse calabash principles, or something,

with its glass expansion chamber...

 

[jvnshr]

Interesting one. Thanks for sharing.

 

[ssjones]

You better smell that chamber before using! That certainly is odd.

 

[foolwiththefez]

Man, that is a beaut. I'd love to have a pipe like that as much as I'd hate to have to clean that chamber.

 

[stvalentine]

What a great ides! I suppose you can simply rinse the chamber with hot water to clean it.

 

[sthbkr77]

Alcohol and salt work great to clear tar off glass. drop salt and alcohols in a sandwich baggie and shake. Definitely an interesting, almost steam-punkish.

 

[brudnod]

Obviously you would have to handle with care as there are unlikely to be replacement parts. Are there nomenclature identification marks on the stem? Lovely find!

 

[xrundog]

Nice gimmick! I'm going to say that's a condensate chamber and you can probably see it working while you smoke.
As is always the case, all the nasty stuff ends up in the shank.

 

[misterlowercase]

It's not mine, just saw it on an overseas auction site.
I've seen a few modern pipes made in the same vein,

like this one:

http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/crazy-cool-seethru-reverse-calabash-design
Interesting stuff.

 

[misterlowercase]

Nice gimmick! I'm going to say that's a condensate chamber and you can probably see it working while you smoke.

I think you're right.
It was a clever design methinks,

I think the pipe is from the 40's or earlier by the looks of it?

 

[xrundog]

I've seen a few modern pipes made in the same vein,

like this one:

http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/crazy-cool-seethru-reverse-calabash-design

Kirtland;s Distiller was a pipe similar to that in the 1890s.
I have a Ropp with very similar fittings and the same horn stem.

I think mine is 1920s or earlier. I'd guess that pipe is of a like date.

 

[misterlowercase]

Good stuff Xrundog!
Thanks for your input and sharing the pix of the Ropp,

very cool!

 

[clickklick]

The fact that the glass is still intact after all this time is completely amazing! Thank you for sharing this!

 

[samcoffeeman]

I've thought of a similar idea, of fitting a blown glass chamber in similar fashion. It would add as an reverse calabash effect and the coloring of the blown glass would add some aesthetic quality. Interesting to see a similar idea.

 

[shaintiques]

I saw a guy selling those in Chicago. Pretty cool idea.

 

[mso489]

Does it enhance the smoking at all? It certainly is an interesting model, keeping some glass blower well employed while the model lasted. Amazing it lasted until now.

 

[huntertrw]

The glass chamber reminds me of the silver Metcalfe's Patent Nicotine Catcher which was incorporated into the stems of certain of the early pipes manufactured by Loewe & Company. A picture of such a Loewe pipe may be found at the bottom of Page 229 in Richard Carleton Hacker's book titled "Rare Smoke - The Ultimate Guide to Pipe Smoking."

 

[misterlowercase]

The seller relisted this pipe (or a similar one) individually, the last listing was a group lot.
Only one photo is zoomable though.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/361481520741?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Pretty neat.