Great-granddad’s Meerschaum

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railman

Might Stick Around
Mar 9, 2019
83
16
No one in my immediate family smoked a pipe but my great grandfather did and luckily the meerschaum was kept and eventually passed on to me. He was born in Austria in 1877 and immigrated with is parents in 1882 to western Wisconsin. As a young man he homesteaded in North Dakota where he stayed until his death in 1954. Unfortunately it’s unknown when or where he acquired the pipe or what he smoked in it and there are no markings on the pipe. Given the color I’d say he smoked it quite a bit! Given its fragility I wouldn’t attempt to smoke it but it has a place to be displayed in my living room.
I do like the carving, a content pipe smoking man and his faithful dog.




 

yuda

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 28, 2017
149
391
fantastic pipe, glad you can keep it safe and still enjoy lookin at it. thanks for sharing.

 

mortonbriar

Lifer
Oct 25, 2013
2,652
5,662
New Zealand
Thats a beauty! Even as an antique find it would be a great pipe, but the added sentimentality of family history is really cool.
Isaac

 

alaskanpiper

Enabler in Chief
May 23, 2019
9,348
42,246
Alaska
That is incredibly cool! I love the old meers that have folksy stuff like that on them. The pirate face/dragon claw stuff gets a little tiring....

 

madox07

Lifer
Dec 12, 2016
1,823
1,689
Wow, your granda smoked the heck out of it. Maybe try to restore it and smoke it yourself? I believe it is totally doable.

 

alexnc

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 25, 2015
953
804
Southeast US
Very cool. It's great having a piece of family history. I would probably try to smoke it! Though I'm not knowledgeable on restoring a meer, I did restore a couple of briars from the 1920s from my wife's Grandpa & smoked them.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
What a great legacy from a true American pioneer. That is a treasure.

 

railman

Might Stick Around
Mar 9, 2019
83
16
Thanks everyone! While it would be fun to get cleaned up and smoke it again there’s just too much risk, it’s enjoyable enough just to look at and think about the man that smoked it. It’s a nice physical connection between myself and the great grandfather that died 30 years before I was even born, especially with some tooth marks on the stem and a few flakes of tobacco still in the chamber!

 
Jan 8, 2013
7,493
733
Fantastic! Being an old meer I bet that's a true red amber stem too. I wish I had pipes that were part of the family history. That's great. I'd smoke that beast though :mrgreen:

 
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