Not anymore, only 2 Falcon bowls and 3 my daughter recently bought for me. All look at only pieces.
Other than airway diameter and chamber capacity I've not noticed one pipe smoking any differently than another.
Those are thrown away by the miners prior to selling to carvers.
This is all from 35 year old memories, but the sharp dressed handsome silver haired dead ringer for Charlie Rich CAO meerschaum pipe seller at Just For Him at Springfield Missouri (who had a handsome young son as his side kick) used to set the hook and reel in the wealthy ladies (while me and his son watched in awe) with the following sales pitch—-
(Next door was the most expensive and exclusive beauty salon in the entire Ozarks. The matrons there are not married or dating poor men, no they are not.
)
Charlie (let’s call him that) had the entire south wall of his shop from knee level to near the ceiling stuffed with hand carved CAO pipes (many Becklers) in a well lit glass case, with $150 pipes down low and $1,000 monsters way up top.
There was a sort of island that jutted out, with Charlie’s huge tomato shaped magnificently colored thousand dollar Beckler that had lattice, skulls, nekkid women, claws, animals and everything else carved on it—-but over half lattice—I wonder where it is now.
Charlie smoked only aromatics in it that smelled like heaven. He called it American English, I still have some. It might have a quarter of one per cent Latakia.
The lady sat in an overstuffed bar stool like chair beside the island and Charle presented her pipes. She’d just spent over a hundred dollars on her hair and nails.
Charlie would say, discerning men have smoked meerschaum pipes for centuries and today all meerschaum pipes of quality come from one region in Turkey where the rare and precious mineral is mined and carved.
Properly cared for, any of these pipes will last for centuries and be more beautiful each time they are smoked. They are joined by a replaceable joint, and our shop offers free inspection for life of the pipe to determine if it needs replaced. He’d demonstrate on the monsterous Beckler beside her.
The value of the pipe is determined much like a fine diamond ring (which those ladies all had—or were gunning for)
Size is a factor, as is the carat weight of a diamond.
All of these pipes are high grade, and the most expensive are of the highest grade that will color easier because of their porosity.
And like a diamond, among the grades there are sometimes tiny occlusions of lesser grade meerschaum only an expert can detect. These cannot be detected until the pipe has been carved, and in no way subtract from it’s beauty.
And finally the skill and artistry of the carving is a factor in the final price. And he’d show a photo of Beckler in his shop, and talk up CAO .
But, he’d finish, the best assurance of quality is to buy from a trusted dealer, who sells pipes all worth the prices charged.
(He also had a Beckler cut in half, to show the coloring process)
I asked him once if he ever sold a meerschaum under $200 (on the bottom shelves) and he smiled and said occasionally to a man, who was not fortunate enough to be gifted one.
The worst thing that ever happened to Charlie was the middle ninties cigar boom.
It forced him to put in a humidor. Which attracted hairy legged boys. And they’d light up foul smelling cigars in Charlie’s shop. And the ladies who had spent most of two hundred dollars on a full facial and hair dye and nail job did not want to go home smelling like a honky tonk Queen, nor did she want to be around men leering at her and laughing and telling big stories about how much money they made.
But while the sun shone on high dollar meerschaum pipes, Charlie had his day in the sun, you know?
