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.
Slight side view. His cowl, beard and tassels are flying out in the wind.
Side view. Not the best tassels, they look a bit stiff, but I like them.
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!
Bottom view shows even more clearly how crooked it is!
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?
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.
Slight side view. His cowl, beard and tassels are flying out in the wind.
Side view. Not the best tassels, they look a bit stiff, but I like them.
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!
Bottom view shows even more clearly how crooked it is!
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?