My guess for the "blob" on the bowl is a big glop of the varnish Missouri Meerschaum uses on their cob stummels. They use a yellow coloring in the varnish. I heard the way it's applied is they throw the stummels in a cement mixer, then start it up and pour in the varnish and let'em tumble awhile. Not exactly an attention to detail manufacturing technigue but it gets the job done. I guess that one got by QC