Carved Pipe Meerschaum

Hi,
I need some help with this pipe. It is 6" long and I thought Meerschaum with a bakelite stem.
From the carving is it possible to tell where this came from? What are the animals?
Any information appreciated.
Thanks for looking.

 

Many of these meerschaum pipes were made in Vienna. Minus the original case there is no way to tell if this is so. If the stems are not amber they are usually of something called Amberoid, which may well be a from of bakelite for all I know.

The form of a holding claw is not uncommon.

 

Thanks af! I didn't know that pipe stems were made of amber, I just thought bakelite. Will check it in the morning.

 

Claw holding pipe bowl is a very well known design.....the native catlinite pipe carvers use it a lot also.

Yours is nice , & nice to see it was well used.
Here are some other very nice ones.





The animals you speak of exist only in your furtive imagination.

But....whatever you're smoking....I want a taste !!!!

 

Are those supposed to be two squirrels along the sides of the bowl, cxgirl? I think the tail of each squirrel is flat against the side of the bowl.

 

Ladies please....that's a claw ....there are no squirrels or ravens or bears or alligators.....at best there may be a couple of leafs on the bowl !

Seriously.....

 

Exactly!!! Thank-you fig,I was beginning to think I was seeing things

lol, thanks for the chuckle komokwa I guess I just have an active imagination!
Af mentioned a 'holding claw' so I had another look and thought maybe. Then seeing your post with examples I agree they are claws but they still look like they have faces - nope, I'm not smoking anything

 

Good, I'm glad you had a laugh !!!

The claws are not as realistic as some others I've show .....& the carver put some design lines where they were not needed..........

 

If you say so... especially if you say so seriously!

 

I don't think the carving on this pipe is as well executed as on many other pipes that I can see online. No wonder I was deceived.

 

Just an observation on the contrast in quality.

Vienna meerschaum.
https://www.google.com/search?q=vie...ved=0ahUKEwiJlay6pfHNAhVL6YMKHdqaDkwQ_AUIBygC

Istanbul meerschaum.
https://www.google.com/search?q=vie..._AUIBygC#hl=en&tbm=isch&q=istanbul+meerschaum

 

maybe not...but still a lot of work there..........seriously !!

 

I agree that it is not as well-carved as some - but it is hand-carved.
Also, in the past, it was possible for amateurs to buy block meerschaum and carve a pipe for themselves, so it may not be made by any well-known maker.
I don't know when the supply dried up, but I'd guess it was in the 1960s; in the 1970s I did some pipe-making, and briar blocks were readily available, and amberoid stems in limited quantity, but block meerschaum was no longer available from any supplier I knew of. You could still get reconstituted meerschaum blocks for use as inserts in a briar pipe, though.