This, I presume, is an example of one. Unknown carver.
Translucent Meerschaum?
- Thread starter Jbyrd
- Start date
Did you get it new? And if so, approximately how long / how much smoking would you say brought it to that point?
Yes, I got it new, around two years ago. I probably smoked it 75 or 100 times.
The seller wrote,
“The pipe you are holding is one of the many older meerschaum pipes which made from better quality meerschaum, as they were mined from deepest possible mines by then unlike today findings.
Also if you notice your pipe has marble looking natural design on it. I cannot imagine how that pipe is going to be colored! I am very curious about that too.”
I'm genuinely amazed that you got that amount of coloring out of 75 to 100 smokes. I'd be more interested in the coloring in general if it happened that quickly. I have meers that have been smoked much more than that and have nowhere near that amount of coloring...including my "translucent" meer.
I, also, have meers that I’ve had more than 300-400 smokes with less coloring … but still very nice coloring! These three are all carved by Baki.
It's probably durable enough, but you can assume that it would impede coloring?As I understand it, these "pencil shank" models are lined with carbon fiber inserts, that I presume are meant to prevent such problems. But I have not owned one or know anyone that has...so I can't speak from experience.
My (uneducated and unqualified) guess, is that this is something that was "lower grade" earlier in history. Even if they color faster, they also seem to color more splotchy, and IMO not as beautifully as a more fully colored ordinary meer, with its creamy character. Now, it's marketed differently, and garners a higher price. Is it worth the price or not? Up to the individual.
Apparently @jerry believes the one he posted above is "translucent" and the only other I remember is Said Altinay posted a pic of one of his once quite a while back that was fairly well colored if I remember right...I would have no idea how to find that now.
The famous pic of Baki's alleged personal pipe of course that is the ultimate in coloring and some claim it's a "translucent"...whether it is or not I have no idea.
Yeah, it might impede coloring...depending on how the coloring actually occurs which there is still widespread disagreement about. But personally I wouldn't care if it did impede it.
That's what I meant, an actual confirmed translucent one that had been heavily smoked.
@mikethompson has a beautifully coloured globe translucent meer.
He may be kind enough to upload some pics
He may be kind enough to upload some pics
That one came about 100 years before the designation.
Gifted A Stunning Globe Meer :: Meerschaum Pipes
I was contacted by a forum member who, despite pushback from me, insisted on gifting me this absolutely stunning meer. Dates from *around* 1921. Just wanted to share yet another example of generosity on this forum. Here are my awful pictures, and some pictures from another thread.
pipesmagazine.com
I had no idea this was a translucent Meer. It was a gift from a very generous (and possibly inebriated) forum member.
Yep. On that one I'll take Ember for a $100. You never get the degree of color on Victorian/Edwardian 'cutty' pipes and the only other examples I have seen were on a couple of pre-Russian Revolution pipes from Tallinn in Estonia that I gave to Shaintiques about ten years ago and those have fecking huge Baltic amber stems.
Thanks for finding that.
IMHO, I don't think you'd ever see that kind of pattern on a meer from a "standard" block...so I take that as evidence that there is a real difference.