Eye Candy for the Tobacco Pipe Connoisseur. 19th–century meerschaum pipes in word-pictures: Difference between revisions

Gradual, incremental changes did occur for both pipe maker and pipe smoker, but those changes were not wholly and solely influenced by the briar pipe. “The carving of meerschaum pipes is not now so prosperous a business as it was twenty years ago. Comparatively little of this kind of work has been done in America; only isolated artists work at it, and of these very few can turn out really fine pieces” (“A Few Words About Pipes,” ''The American Stationer'', April 9, 1891).

<blockquote>Everything—including a talented generation of the trade of the carvers in bone, ivory, meerschaum and like materials has never fully recovered from the blow it received in the hard times beginning in 1893. There were at that time probably more than 300 such carvers working in this city. Many of them were driven out of the trade into other and cruder lines of carving, and only a few of those who thus changed their medium have been able to find work of the old kind. Only a very small part of those who do such carving belong to the class of true artists ivory, bone and meerschaum. Of such highly skilled carvers the whole number could probably be counted on the fingers of two hands. …There are few native Americans who have mastered the craft. Probably a single employing carver, a native American of German parentage, is the only one now engaged in the art. …Most of those engaged in the art are Germans, though a few Frenchmen have worked here. The German-American referred to thinks that most Americans lack the patience to become skilled carvers. The American haste is antagonistic to the attitude of mind that the successful carver must maintain. </blockquote>