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  This page is a recent addition, taking the opportunity to display the results of my antique auction visits as well as many, many out of the way tobacconists and pipe dealers.  

Some of the displayed pipes are in my own personal collection. Some are my deepest desire to own someday. This also holds true for some of the briar pipes shown here.

  Meerschaum Pipes

Meerschaum - as translated from German - reflects the lightness in weight and whiteness in color. Meerschaum is the perfect material for a cool, dry smoke. The pipe itself is a natural filter that absorbs nicotine. Today, the highest quality Meerschaum deposits are not found near any body of water. They are found in only one area of the world, the open plains of central turkey surrounding the small city of Eskisehir.

"Meerschaum" is a German word meaning sea foam. The geologist knows the light, porous Meerschaum as hydrous Magnesium silicate.

The pipe smoker knows it as the perfect material for providing a cool, dry, flavorful smoke.

  Continue on to the next page for some of my favorite artistic creations, some of which are on my never-ending wish list.  I am creating a page with my wish list, coming up in a few months.

The noble meerschaum is unique among pipes.  Its mysterious properties make it a perfect smoke and, at the same time, a work of art; a pipe highly prized by the connoisseur and beginning smoker alike.

 

 

The mineral itself is the fossilized shells of tiny sea creatures that fell to the ocean floor over 50 million years ago, there to be covered and compressed over the ages by layer upon layer of silt.

Profound movements in the earth's crust raised the creamy white stone of meerschaum above sea level. There men eventually discovered it and Created an incomparable pipe from it. The first record of Meerschaum as a pipe dates from around 1723.

A word about briars.

A well-defined and designed briar pipe begins as a "Burl" (or growth) on the root system of the White Heath tree, a squat,hearty, shrub-like plant which grows primarily in the dry, arid, rocky wastelands around the Mediterranean Sea.

Of all woods, the Briar Burl is unique for making pipes; it's tough, porous, and nearly impervious to heat.

Burls for fine quality pipes can often be 50 to 100 years old when harvested for pipe making. Once harvested, the Briar burls are cut by skilled craftsmen using large circular saws to remove the soft and cracked portions. This leaves only close-rained, extremely hard Briar wood. The remaining Briar is then rough-cut into small blocks, called "ebauchons," in sizes and shapes suitable for fashioning into standard shape pipes.

 

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