Ever Seen Carver Eyup Sabri?

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BROBS

Lifer
Nov 13, 2019
11,765
40,026
IA
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
For some reason, Meerschaum carvers don't get celebrated by name that much, though some of the carving is of a high order. Maybe in Turkey they are renown and they just don't bother to cultivate celebrity in the West? The sourcing of the pipes seems mysterious, not much information is shared much less publicized. Maybe some members know more about this?
 

jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
738
384
Seattle
Ismet Bekler was the first carver to begin signing his pipes, circa 1974. The 2nd and 3rd, not long after, were Ismail Ozel (who signed as "The Artist")... and Eyup Sabri. I love Bekler dearly, but Sabri was a spectacular carver! He did amazing floral figurals, as you show (this style was later taken up by carvers like Sevklet and Tekin), and carved a lot of unicorns and dragons. He did something no other Turkish carver I know of did: made all his stems (save his earliest pipes) from a material other than plastic or acrylic. In his case, it was... water buffalo horn. Really. That's what's on the pipe you saw. A meerschaum tamper with a metal head was often included. I suspect that other thin tamper with the claw design isn't original to the pipe, but I don't know.

Bluegrassbrian, if you like that pipe, grab it. It'll smoke and color extremely well. If you don't, I'll bet someone here might love to purchase it through you! $250 is a very reasonable price for a Sabri like that, unsmoked and complete in the box. Nearly all Sabris came in box cases like that, with the metal ID tag.

Sabri passed away in the early 2000s so, like Bekler, it's all vintage now. Getting one new-old-stock is an uncommon opportunity. Here's my Sabri, a unicorn with some latticed floral and a screw-in, spiral twist horn carved from water buffalo horn like the stem. The face has a cheerful smile (not perfectly realistic, but it is a unicorn!), veins visible, and looks slightly to one side. Mine is unfortunately missing the tamper, but I still love it dearly (it came with a sweet, if also sad, story). Does that one have the paper tag like mine, giving date and number? It may be on the shank by his sig, too; mine says 1985, has the scrolly "ES" logo, then a pipe number. So: "1985 ES / 34".

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