I remember looking at Paul Bentley's (Astleys) extremely rare collection of carved meerschaums. Incidentally, Paul, whilst running the Astley's shop, had also worked on the rostrum at Sothebys. He showed me the best indicator he uses to differentiate between a very good carved meerschaum and the absolute finest carved meerschaum. He showed me one of a carved head of a Victorian woman and said 'if you look at the nose, you can see that under the nostrils how polished this part is'. It was beautifully polished and in fact, all the recesses of the 'cut marks' of the carving were polished incredibly well so no cut marks were visible. It was breath-taking - I was blown away. He said this was his most valuable antique meerschaum. He also showed me his ceramic pipe made by Picasso.
By saying this Charatan, in my opinion, is kitsch, I do not want to offend anyone who likes this type of 'quality' carving. I am just saddened to witness the downward trend Charatan was taking after the Dunhill takeover. Rather than using the word kitsch, I would call it 'cheap junk'. Tyrolean pipe carvers' work was, in general, much better quality.
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