Meerschaum Calabash Pipe
- Thread starter El Capitán
- Start date
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I had one for a while. It was a Pioneer and was a very nice looking pipe, but it just wasn't my style. I smoked it a handful of times and it smoked well. I figured I'd move it along to someone that would appreciate it more.
Do you mean clys or meerschaums? Decorated clays are molded. This is a plain clay, but black:
Antique Tavern Belge (Black) - Old German Clay Pipes
Buy this Old German Clay Antique Tavern (Black) tobacco pipe from Smokingpipes, hand-crafted from quality German clay.
www.smokingpipes.com
Not a meerschaum, but a calabash nonetheless. 1909 silver capped gourd w/ original case.
H
HRPufnstuf
Guest
Pioneer purchased from Tim West
Seconded on the Old German Clays. They're fantastic smokers and great value-for-money. I honestly prefer mine to some of my nice briars and in most cases they cost less than half. My first one had the clay stem (which I got used to and used really heavily in my rotation for a long time) but it got dropped and broken so I bought another they have (I think it's called a Model 70) that has a kinda curved, willowy acrylic stem that's great for clenching. I love that thing, and I personally feel it's the closest to what (in my unofficial and likely incorrect head canon) I could see Holmes smoking.Do you mean clys or meerschaums? Decorated clays are molded. This is a plain clay, but black:
If they get these back in stock, or any of their other black clays (they do stock some black ones right now), there's your Holmes pipe, without the bad taste.Antique Tavern Belge (Black) - Old German Clay Pipes
Buy this Old German Clay Antique Tavern (Black) tobacco pipe from Smokingpipes, hand-crafted from quality German clay.
They can be had for cheap, and IMO are well worth hunting for. Even a yard sale find or something slightly beat up will give you a feel for whether a calabash is for you. With enough persistence you should be able to find one, especially if you aren’t looking for a particular vintage, a certain marque, or aren’t after a specific look.
Here’s an old Duncan calabash for about 20-40 pounds (shipping was murder on this one, hence the range). Granted it has a rather small bowl for a calabash and isn’t perfect, but that’s what I was after, and I think it’s quite handsome.
Another bonus - it fits in regular pipe holders!
No clue about the age/manufacture though. Had no clue Duncan stocked calabashes until seeing this one.
Sherlock Holmes *might* have smoked one around the turn of the century and afterward, but Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is silent on the matter, as are Sidney Paget's original illustrations in The Strand magazine. William Gilette first popularised the image of Holmes smoking a calabash on the stage in 1899. It owes its popularity in the English-speaking world to the Second Boer War (1899-1902), during which British and Imperial troops in South Africa started copying the natives' use of those gourds as pipes, due to a supply shortage of briars and clays (interestingly, the military mount seems to derive from the same period, broken pipes being originally mended with a modified cartridge case).