Meerschaum, Not Ivory

LS writes to ask me if his vintage pipe is ivory, and if so, can he sell ivory? First question: it is not ivory; it is carved meerschaum. If it were ivory, LS would have to donate it, as ivory cannot be sold today without extensive paperwork. This is a 1880s sea-foam hand carved pipe; Meerschaum!

Where did this tradition of carved meerschaum originate, and what is the figure on the bowl of the pipe? Notice the head is turbaned and the face is bearded, and this answers the first question: Carved meerschaum pipes originated in the mid-18th century in Eskişehir, Turkey, a region between Istanbul and Ankara, where today sepiolite – the material commonly known as meerschaum (“sea foam” in German) – is mined from thousands of shafts leading to horizontal galleries, ready for extraction. Sepiolite is the remains of compressed ancient sea life; scientifically, it is a hydrous magnesium silicate. 

Secondly, the Turkish gentleman pictured on the pipe’s bowl is a nod to Turkish tobacco, which has long been one of the world’s top tobaccos. The blend, called “Oriental,” is a small-leafed, sun-cured variety of the plant that is spicy and tangy, as opposed to Virginia tobacco plants from the United States, which have sweet, grassy leaves. Thus, the image of the exotic man is a nod both to the place of origin of meerschaum and to the style of tobacco the pipe was meant to hold.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, meerschaum was exported from Turkey and carved in Vienna. The tradition of these pipes is thus associated with Germanic culture, with carved figures that evoke a distinctly Germanic aesthetic. Carving reached a height in the 19th century, when a wide variety of figures and bowls were introduced to the world market, often with amber stems. Typical figures include dog breeds, bears and wolves, fat Friar faces, buxom women (to the bustline), sultans, sea creatures, Greek Gods, Arabian princes, trolls, and sailors. Today master carvers in Virginia are represented on a charming site called MeerschaumMarket.com. Order a modern Meerschaum pipe with shorter stem, or a traditional “churchwarden” long stem pipe intended to make the smoker look contemplative. 

Tobacco is native to the Americas, and the smoking of tobacco pipes dates to Indigenous American ceremonial rites as early as 3,500 years ago. Archaeologists have found early clay pipe fragments from this period. The plant was introduced to Europe in the 16th century through several avenues: the 1492 voyage of Christopher Columbus; the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs (who smoked tobacco); and the introduction of tobacco and the pipe to England by Ralph Lane, the governor of Virginia, who in 1586 brought a Native American pipe to Sir Walter Raleigh and taught him how to use it. Tobacco was subsequently brought from Roanoke to England in 1589.

Settlers at Jamestown smoked pipes of many sizes and shapes, as attested by extensive excavations conducted by the National Park Service beginning in 1933, and later at Williamsburg in 1963, where an entire pathway leading to a blacksmith’s house was found paved with 11,000 broken clay tobacco pipe fragments from the 17th century. The supposition is that pipe smoking was so popular with the Colonists, both men and women, that the 11,000 pipe fragments represent a shipment from England that was damaged on the voyage. By 1580, England had begun producing its own white clay pipes, and the Guild of Tobacco Makers was established in London in 1619.

In Turkey and Vienna in the 19th century, imitation meerschaum pipes were also marketed, made from other minerals or from a composite of meerschaum shavings. However, these imitations were not ultra-light, heat-resistant, or naturally absorbent of nicotine and tobacco tars. Some of the figures on the bowls were amateurishly carved or molded rather than hand carved. A moistened finger placed inside the bowl of a real meerschaum pipe will stick slightly to the sides because sepiolite is porous. Their competitors in the 19th-century pipe market were briar or ceramic pipes, but they did not age like meerschaum pipes, which, when newly carved, are bright white but over time turn amber, then red, and eventually a deep ochre. Sepiolite is rarest – and the pipes most valuable – when the material is translucent.

Since 1970, Turkey has banned the export of raw sepiolite nodules, which were traditionally carved in Austria or Germany. Today, Turkey maintains a multigenerational tradition of hand carvers in Eskişehir.

When this pipe was purchased, around 1880, it would have been expensive; today, like many materials related to smoking, it might sell for around $100.