New meerschaum from I. Baglan

[treebarksap]

Here's a meerschaum pipe I just got, made from a fellow named I. Baglan. I have no idea whether or not this guy is reputable, but I had a look through some of his other carvings and they seemed to be pretty good quality when compared to a lot of other cheaper options out there. There were quite a few heads, skulls, etc. which were pretty interesting and well done, but this eagle claw seemed to have more detail than most and I liked the design, so I went for it. Mostly on a gut instinct, so hopefully it works out. The pipe was not too cheap, but it was not so crazy either. It says in the listing that it is made from block meerschaum, but aside from a couple of crude tests that may or may not work, how can you really know anyway? I don't have a bucket of cheap pressed meerschaum pipes to compare it to. Hopefully he is reputable and it is genuine.

Does anyone know much about this pipe carver? I don't feel like I got ripped off, and I'd pay for it again, but I'm just curious to know what others might know about him and the value of this pipe. Hopefully it smokes well for a few decades!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Eagles-CLAW-Made-by-I-BAGLAN-Block-Meerschaum-Pipe-in-a-fitted-case-3536-pipa-/130687418232?ssPageName=ADME:X:BOCOS:US:1123

 

[irishsmoker]

Wow that's a sweet meerschaum!

 

[treebarksap]

Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool looking work too, but I don't know much else about it. Seems like it's always a shot in the dark with these types of pipes, but I hope it works out. I think the colouring might turn out nice if it is even.

 

[captainprophesy]

WOW! thats a beautiful pipe... never heard of the carver but damn he did a great job!. :clap:

 

[brian64]

That's a beautiful meer...congrats!
Meerschaum Market has an I. Baglan page and lists him as a master carver:
http://www.meerschaummarket.com/servlet/the-MASTER-CARVERS-cln-I.-BAGLAN-PIPES/Categories

 

[cigrmaster]

Welcome to the site. That took some guts throwing 200 at a guy you never heard of. It looks like he is known though from what Brian posted. I hope it is a great smoker for you,

 

[lildutchboy]

That's beautifully detailed. You'll have to smoke the hell out of it so we can all see how it colors.

 

[poligerard]

thats one sick pipe.
:worship:

 

[shawn]

That is just great.

 

[tbradsim1]

Baglan was a carver for Storient, whether he is now I don"t know, I have a Baglan Meer, damn good smoker, supposedly he was one of Storients top carvers. The old cajun

 

[1coolsmoke]

Great looking pipe.I bought one from this guy,and it smokes great.

 

[redbeard]

Oh... My....pipe.... Lol. This is awesome!! I love dragons and it looks like a dragons claw holding the bowl. Wow.... I am in love

 

[redbeard]

To me it's a dragon lol, and how is it that color?

 

[treebarksap]

I suppose it could be a dragon. Whatever it is, it's in need of a manicure... That's partly why I chose it, as I haven't seen such detail before, especially in the claws. I'm biased toward standard shapes with my pipes, so this figure pipe was way out on a limb in many respects.

It cost me a bit, but I've paid more for much worse. I bought a dunhill in Rio for around $300 reals. That's probably about $150 USD or so these days. Turned out there was a small crack on the shank, hidden beneath some well placed varnish. To top it off, when I next checked my bank account, I discovered that the money I withdrew from my account was withdrawn 3 times! So that crappy dunhill actually cost me over $550! I'm still waiting for my bank to do their "investigation" to try and get my money back from the crooks banking in Brazil. Next time I'm in Rio, I'll also be passing by this guy's pipe shop to let him know he's an ass. Pipe was sold as perfect, and I guess I should have looked more closely, but it wasn't until the third smoke when I noticed some moisture coming through the shank crack. Well away from his shop by then and all was lost.

So far, I'm off to a better start with this pipe. From the response, it seems I was not alone in thinking that it was a nicely carved pipe. I'd like to know more about it though, especially with the meerschaum market being so suspect with cheap materials being used. Hopefully it is true that this guy picked a good piece to carve with, otherwise, why spend all of that time making something so intricate if it is made from crap? It seems to me that there is a wide spectrum of quality in the meerschaum market, but I paid mostly for the carving, so I won't complain too loudly if it doesn't turn out to be a good smoker.

I guess I'll just have to wait until it's in my hands and I can smoke it awhile before giving a review of this guy's pipes. If the colouring happens to look nice, I'll post some pictures when it's turning. I haven't seen any pictures yet of these claw style pipes and colouring. If anyone has one, it'd be interesting to see how it's looking.