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?
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?