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

“It can readily be understood that with a material as plastic and refined of texture, and as susceptible to surface finish as meerschaum, a sculptor of ability could produce superb effects of delicacy…” (“The Meerschaum Collector,” ''The Collector'', November 1, 1889).   

      

“This [pipe] was specially carved for this exhibit [Chicago’s World Fair in 1893] by one of the most expert workmen of this firm [William Demuth].  It stood in the centre of the open space in a special crystal case by itself; the meerschaum head measured sixteen inches long by seventeen inches in height, and contained twenty-one figures, surrounded by foliage and minor details representing the landing of Columbus, with the natives dispersed about the strand, the women peeping through the bushes. It was a marvellous piece of carving from the solid raw material. In most exhibition pipes the carved figures have appeared in relief, which is to say, they have been backed by solid material, but with this pipe the figures were carved distinct, and individually perfect, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, the strength being given by the interlacing of foliage so as to protect the work, which covered the whole upper surface of the stem of the pipe from the bowl to the mouthpiece. A piece of meerschaum was specially obtained from Turkey for this purpose. The stem was worthy of the pipe, consisting of a mass of cloudy and clear amber artistically cut into what is known as the ‘thorn’ pattern, and it measures eleven inches in length, with a diameter of two inches in its thickest part, having a shell finish terminating in a plain mouthpiece. It was insured for $10,000, and must have served as a live object-lesson for the pipe manufacturers of other countries” (“A Pipe Exhibit at Chicago,” ''Tobacco'', March 1, 1894).  

Occasionally, a meerschaum pipe gets honorable mention in a work of fiction. “He [Antoletti] lived, poor fellow, by carving meerschaum pipes for the trade, but he lived for ‘Madeline and Porphyro’ and his art. …So the pipe was carved—a work of exquisitely intricate and delicate art. On the rear of the bowl, in view of the smoker, was a female face with a wreath of flowers about the forehead, and with flowers and grapes hanging down in graceful intermingling with flowing bands of hair. These flowers ran into ragged weeds and bedraggled-looking grasses on the other side, and from these grinned a death’s head. In at the open mouth of the skull and out at the eyes, and wrapped in sinuous windings at the base, coiled a snake. The pipe was not over large, for all its wealth of ornamentation” (David Christie Murray, “An Old Meerschaum,” ''Coals of Fire and Other Stories'', 1885). Had the author imagined this intricate, but grim, pipe as he had fictionalized his romance?

Back to reality. Nicholas Storey believes that the beginning of the end for the meerschaum occurred in the 19th century. “Some have sought to explain the attraction of the briar pipe for the British gentleman on the basis that plain clay pipes were seen as essentially working-class accessories and hardly the sort of thing to be seen walking around and smoking; moreover, they were frail and liable to snap. The reasonably ready alternative of the ornately carved ''Meerschaum'' was equally unacceptable as it appeared too flashy so, to appeal to the combined desire for a good smoke and sturdy, understated elegance, Comoy had hit the nail on the head” (''History of Men’s Accessories'' (2011).  As most everyone familiar with the history of the briar knows, François Comoy began making briar pipes in the 1850s.