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didimauw

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 28, 2013
10,727
37,708
SE WI
No, I'm not taking my cob on a date... (mostly because I'm Damn near married to it now.)
I acquired a cob in a batch of estate pipes a few months back, and it seems to be older. It has a longer shank and I was told it has a bakelite stem. It only had part of the sticker on it, but I'm wondering if anyone can tell how old it might be?
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weezell

Lifer
Oct 12, 2011
13,653
49,171
I'd call MM Cob and see if you could shoot them a pic. They seem to be nice, down to earth folks...

 

jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
753
409
Seattle
I won't claim to be an expert, but after several years of collecting, loving old cobs, and watching eBay for both old pipes and old catalogs, this is the guesswork I have:
The first MM sticker was yellow-ochre in color, bore the image of an ear of corn, and read "Missouri Meerschaum" over the top and "H. Tibbe & Son Mfg. Co." around the bottom. In 1909, H. Tibbe & Son merged with their first competitor, the Detmold Cob Pipe Works ("detmold" was their own patented rival process for making hard bowls) and took the name "The Missouri Meerschaum Co." Their 1909 catalog features many repeats, as they were making both their own and Detmold's nearly-identical models at the same time. The new sticker was also yellow and looked identical, save that it lacked the Tibbe & Son text below. I believe this label was used well into the 1930s, if not right up until WWII.
What I believe to be the post-WWII sticker was two-tone metallic. It had a gold border and lettering on a reddish-brown background. "Missouri" and "Meerschaum" ran around the top and bottom, respectively, with "Fine cob pipes" in the center with a little scroll design above and below. The next sticker used was in the same colors, but with a narrower gold border, same lettering around the circle, but had two letter Ms merged in the center, with "Co." beneath the middle. I believe this sticker lasted into the 1960s.
The next sticker is yours, which I think began in the 1970s, in yellow and brown, and was used until 2003 or 2004, when it was replaced with an identical design in yellow and maroon. I visited the factory in 2004, and obtained some unused stickers, still on the paper, in both yellow/brown and yellow/maroon.
The pipe you have was typically called a Pony Express, or simply Pony. Older iterations had other names. The early ones had bone stems; in the 1960s, they were black or white plastic; in the 1970s came black or transparent amber plastic.

 

didimauw

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 28, 2013
10,727
37,708
SE WI
Thanks for the information jonasclark! I love learning about my favorite pipe company!

 

ocpsdan

Can't Leave
May 7, 2012
411
3
Michigan
Looking through some of the old catalogs we have here, I can estimate that your pipe is from some time in the mid-1950's based off characteristics like the Rob Roy shape matched with the longer shank non-typical to standard Legends as we know them today-- though I could be wrong. Send us an email with pictures to pipes@corncobpipes.com and we may be able to date it a little better than that.

 
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