New (to me) Eyup Sabri meerschaum

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jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
738
384
Seattle
At the supermarket, chomping a Bekler poodle, a guy asked if I knew about meerschaums. He had one, in storage. It had a paper tag naming the carver. I talked about Bekler, and when I mentioned his first importer, Royal, used cards because he hadn't begun signing his pipes at that point, he said the card said Royal on it, or so he thought. That was a few months ago. Yesterday, he got back to me. The sticker in the chest says Royal; the card names the carver, Eyup Sabri. As far as I know, the first carvers to sign pipes, circa early 1970s were Ismet Bekler, Ismail Ozel (later signed as "the artist") and Sabri. I know of no Turkish carvers, aside from a few pipes Sadik Yanik makes using antique amber stems, using anything but various kinds of plastic-- except Sabri, who used water buffalo horn!

Today, we met so I could examine the pipe. It's a unicorn, with a spiral horn also made from water buffalo horn. Has a wonderful, realistic face, three of Sabri's almost-lattice flowers on the underside, and the face is looking very slightly to one side. The meerschaum has that subtle texture beneath the surface, a sign of high-quality block dipped in high-quality wax. It was the property of his girlfriend, who died suddenly a few years ago; unicorns were her way of getting through an extremely rough childhood, and she ended up with hundreds of unicorn items. I said I loved this pipe, but my budget ended at $150, and I know Sabris can and do fetch $400+ on eBay. I offered to sell it for him. He insisted that he sell it to me for my price instead, saying that, to him, I and my interest in it "just felt right." I'm honored that he did.

It's dated 1985, on the brass tag in the chest and on the shank by the ES signature and pipe number, 134. Unsmoked. The meerschaum pipe tamper is missing, but I'm not bothered; if I'm meant to find a replacement, it'll happen. I have several Beklers, no Ismail (but a few other mastercarvers), but this is my first Sabri, and I doubt I'll find any Sabri I like better, even among the many, many unicorns he carved. Thoughts on this pipe?

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jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
738
384
Seattle
Thanks! P.S. is the "meerschaum" subforum gone? Via Google searches, I can find a few threads from it are still up, but I can't find a way to them from the site.
 

paulfg

Lifer
Feb 21, 2016
1,565
2,929
Corfu Greece
Thanks! P.S. is the "meerschaum" subforum gone? Via Google searches, I can find a few threads from it are still up, but I can't find a way to them from the site.
its still there although difficult to find.
from the main forum page
pipe talk
there is a small icon like a folder at the bottom of the header,that contains sub folders including british pipes,meerschaum etc
 

jonasclark

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 4, 2013
738
384
Seattle
Thanks. I love items with good stories, and especially pipes. This one is sweet and a bit sad. I'll take good care of this pipe, and I promised that, in the far future, I wouldn't sell it for more than I paid. Who knows, might just give it to someone someday. They have to hear the history on it.
 
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