Just joined the group! My name's Pat; I live in the greater Boston area, and I've been dabbling in vintage virgin meerschaums since around 1970 or so. I just acquired a 3-headed virgin Eyup Sabri dragon with genuine inlaid ruby eyes, and I'm not the least bit excited about it. (APRIL FOOLS! Yes I am! See my album!) I've got a collection of a couple of dozen Turkish meers, mostly vintage virgins from the 50s to 90s plus two that I've turned into daily smokers. I've started uploading photos and descriptions but it's going to take a while. In the meantime, I wonder if any of your can clear up a mystery for me? On the shanks of several of my pipes a signature appears: a printed capital "O" with a short wavy line sprouting out of its top like a stem from an apple or cherry at about the 1 o'clock position. The stylized "O" is followed by a period and then the printed name "Sabri". However, this is quite different than the shank markings of my 3-headed dragon, which are two flowing script initials, "E.S.", preceded by the small numerals "983" and followed by the small numerals "61". I have no doubt that the dragon and signature are Eyup Sabri's, and signify that the pipe was made in 1983, his 61st of that year. What I DON'T know is if Eyup Sabri signed his volume pipes differently than his limited edition works, or if there were actually TWO master meerschaum carvers named "Sabri" working at the same time in Eskisehir Turkey during the last part of the last century. For a good look at the signature in question, go to my album and look at the shank photo of my smaller 'Sabri' sultan (same pipe as my avatar photo). Hey Fred, are ya there? Glad to be on board and looking forward to making new friends and meeting new fanatics. - Pat