New-To-Me Kiko 1 Leather-wrapped Meer

[piffyr]

I've answered the siren call of the White Goddess a couple of times recently. The first time that she lured me in was for this unsmoked, leather-wrapped Kiko meer that arrived yesterday.

Yeah, I know. Wrapping meerschaum in leather kind of takes away from some of its inherent charm. I'm still pretty stoked about it for a few reasons though.
First, it's unsmoked and in good condition. All I have to do is add some tobacco, introduce a flame, and I'm puffing away. No fiddling required. I don't get to do that too often.
Second, I like the novelty of leather-wrapped pipes and they feel great in the hand. There's a good reason why they were so popular for a time.
Third, I love the couple of meers that I already have, and I tend to baby them. No touching the warm bowl, suspending them by the stem after a smoke to cool, and things like that. Due to the additional care, I don't smoke them as often as I'd like though. Wrapping the meer in leather throws out the need for all of that and I can smoke it just like I would a briar. So, this guy is likely to show up a lot more often in the rotation.

 

[snowyowl]

Sweet... on two accounts.

I acquired two leather-covered Ropp briars this summer, both unsmoked. From a bygone era -- something like the late sixties or early 70s? An eBay guy in Berlin has about a hundred unsmoked Ropps, with a few of the old leather ones.
The cotton stitching looks like it's from that period. Did you have an idea of the age of yours?
On a meerschaum note, I'm about to purchase my first one. My first thought was to just handle the thing and let it become what it will become. But now I need to think about using that white glove?!

 

[papipeguy]

Very cool pipe. This is an interesting story about Kiko.
http://pipedia.org/wiki/Kiko

 

[piffyr]

I'm not totally sure of the age of that one, @snowyowl. I'm guessing that it was made somewhere between the mid-70s and early 80s. Kiko was making similar ones for GBD at about the same time. It was definitely made sometime after 1964. This one is stamped "Tanzania" and the ones before '64 were stamped "Tanganyika".
As for the meer, you'll do fine just smoking it like normal. Lots of people do. I'm just persnickety with them. I don't use a white glove though. I do fine just holding them by the stem.