My latest meerschaum PAD

[jonasclark]

I bought this on eBay. It's missing the stem, so until I have one made, I'm using a stem from another meerschaum.
Yep, another Bekler abstract (this makes five!) and this one is a winner all right. Bekler usually signed "i. Bekler" for CAO, and "ismet Bekler" for Golden Horn before that... and not at all for Royal, before that. I know of several pipes with a date, '74, carved next to the signature (which I suspect are very late Royal or early Golden Horn), and these are usually signed "ismet Bekler," but I have seen one '74 signed "BEKLER" (all caps, block letters) and another '74 signed "iSMET." This one is undated, signed "iSMET," and signed in a very odd spot: atop the bowl! Being that Bekler was the first carver to sign his pipes, my guess is that this is pre-1974, very very early in his signing days.
My pipes have all been titled (by me), and I'm calling this one "Coral." It's been smoked and is starting to acquire a mottled coloration, even on its extremities. One tip was broken off and got reattached, not perfectly but I think well enough. Opinions?

Backstory is, the eBay seller bought these at an estate sale. The original seller's brother, who had been suffering from depression, kept his spirits up by collecting record albums and meerschaum pipes. He bought several figurals (most of them CAO, a few of those Bekler's work) and this one abstract. Some had cases and some didn't but, for reasons that will probably forever be unexplained, nearly all were missing their stems!
"Coral" now joins "Blue," "Les Fleur," "Smooth Sailing," and "Picasso '74" in the display of Ismet Bekler's genius abstract pipes. Beyond Imagination, indeed!

 

[Chasing Embers]

Wow! Have never seen anything like that. Very interesting piece!

 

[jonasclark]

Thanks! For posters who haven't seen them, the others it joins are, in order of acquisition:
Picasso '74 (it's dated '74, and Picasso is from the "Homage to Picasso" series, the first Bekler abstracts I ever saw, in a 1980 CAO catalog)

Les Fleur (some of the cutest spot carvings I've seen on a meerschaum; the two other Beklers I've seen with these same flowers overdid them)

Blue (its original owner had two; his son and the seller, his grandson, always referred to them by the color of their velvet-covered box cases, Red Box and Blue Box)

Smooth Sailing (mirror-smooth with a suggestion of a swaying boat sail; this one is unsigned, but can only be Bekler's work-- nobody else carved like this. It's reminiscent of his 1982 "a la Rodin" series)

They're crazy pipes, and though they feel very unwieldy in the hand, they're so much fun that I don't care. Several other carvers made abstracts, but none were anything like Bekler's, and they really must be turned over several times and examined to understand how they flow; until you've examined them, photographs can make them seem almost impossible.

 

[dustmite]

Stunning pipes, one and all.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Good Lord. You have just introduced someone obsessed with Danish freehands to meer freehands. PAD sense is tingling! :mrgreen:

 

[jonasclark]

Thanks, dustmite! Chasingembers, they get crazier. How's this guy? Made for Golden Horn, signed "iSMET '74."

Or this demon, with his face formed by some X-rated bits:

If you want to look into these sorts of things, search "meerschaum bekler" on eBay; there's a pipe from his 1982 "a la Rodin" series, a bit tame by Bekler standards but still very lovely. Ends in 2 days with only one bid so far, and is interestingly no. 82 in a series from 1982.

 

[jimmy57]

I just picked up my first Ismet Bekler off of the bay. I tried a meer or two back in the '90s but wasn't particularly impressed. Seeing this pipe I was intrigued by the abstract design, so I dug out my dog eared, well worn copy, of Richard Hacker's Ultimate Pipe Book, and re-read what he had to say about Meerschaums in general, and Ismet Bekler in particular.
The pipe had been listed perhaps 4 times, and always ended with no bids. I wrote to the seller, we came to an agreement, and, at my suggestion the pipe was listed at double what she had been asking, along with a Buy It Now/Best Offer, which we had agreed on beforehand.
It had been her late father's, he had been a pipe collector and never smoked it. Well it looked better in person than in the photos, and I soon filled it with Dunhill Early Morning Pipe and enjoyed my first meer in 30 years. A very fine smoking experience. Here is one of the seller's photos,unsmoked, and mine after the baptism of fire

 

[jvnshr]

That's a neat pipe. Enjoy it.

 

[pagan]

 

[blueeyedogre]

More of a fan of the traditionals but I have to admit that those pipes are eye catching. Nice score.

 

[jonasclark]

Jimmy57, that Bekler sitter is a Golden Horn-era pipe. It's quite spiffy, and I'm sure it'll smoke well! That's an excellent buy. His abstract work, from the plainest to the wildest, is always fun to hold and examine.
Since "Coral," my assortments has grown to include "Pisces"

And "Voluta"

Unless something else amazing comes up at a really reasonable price, I'm not actively buying right now.