New old (Turkish) meer

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jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
738
384
Seattle
Went to the Tacoma, WA Tinder Box, which has a huge variety of new meers, though mostly smaller and medium sizes. They had a couple of vintage unsmoked meers, including two unusually nice Bekler figurals, a straight-facing man who looks like a beardless Abe Lincoln, for $250, and a quarter-turned woman's face for $300, as well as a few other nice signed meers. I bought this incredibly quirky man for about $70. Opinions?
Front view. Looks like he's facing a strong wind. I usually see this open mouth with teeth on "laughing Bacchus" pipes, where it seems to come across as quite scary (I hear "Hah hah hah, you look particularly delicious!") but here, somehow, I think it looks friendly.

IIeD5Br.jpg

Slight side view. His cowl, beard and tassels are flying out in the wind.

LGuorAK.jpg

Side view. Not the best tassels, they look a bit stiff, but I like them.

QeKviLn.jpg

Top view. This begins to show the quirky part. If I have the pipe on the left side of my mouth, and he's adjusted right, his face aims directly forward. Also, when looking straight at his face, the bowl goes in on a slight diagonal!

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Bottom view shows even more clearly how crooked it is!

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There's no signature, and the stem has an unusual pale-yellow transparency, with golden threads throughout. I usually see yellow opaque stems on these. I suspect it's from the mid-1970s. No case, yet it retains a hint of that awesome meerschaum scent. The pen marks on the surface of the end of the shank and on the inner cut part of the stem (I see these on lots of Turkish meers, the pipe and stem makers pairing them up for assembly) both say 83; I wonder what 82 or 84 looked like?

 

cortezattic

Lifer
Nov 19, 2009
15,147
7,637
Chicago, IL
The more I look at it, the more I like it. You're right about it being a quirky character.

At $70 I think it's an excellent buy. I have a couple of questions:
  • How does it feel in your hand?

    What is the chamber diameter and depth?

    Does it have a screw-on nylon tenon, or is it a push-pull like a briar?

 

ericthered

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 29, 2014
511
2
Suffolk, VA
If he were mine I would probably name him "The Jolly Bedouin". It almost looks like he's singing.
I personally would only ever hold this pipe by the stem for fear of breaking off parts of the beard or the hood.
If it's a screw-in tenon, could the alignment strangeness be due to under/overturn or do you think it was carved to be not quite forward facing?

 

jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
738
384
Seattle
I agree with "the Jolly Bedouin" so much that I think I'm going to adopt that, if you don't mind! The weird format is 100% in the carving, it puts the shank at an odd angle.
Bowl is a bit under 2" deep and about 1" at the top, tapering in. Draft hole comes out literally IN the bottom point, draft is nice and clear. It's a bit awkward in my hand due to the beard, but if I cup my hand around the front it's okay. It's very light weight, too, and while not a good clencher, hangs nicely.
He can be the more modern, crazier cousin to my antique oxblood bedouin, here:

Vaien2d.jpg

sKVmbHt.jpg

K9ONzTO.jpg


 

ericthered

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 29, 2014
511
2
Suffolk, VA
You're welcome to it! He's definitely the black sheep brother of that oxblood bedouin. If you can find a camel meer you've got yourself a caravan!

 

jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
738
384
Seattle
No camel, but the Tinder Box had a pretty awesome and very pugnacious-looking English bulldog meer.

 
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