Many of the French pipes are exceedingly quaint representing all manner of comical scenes. One is formed like a steam-engine the smoke passing through the funnel. Another is fashioned after a potato or a turnip while others often represent some military subjects. In England and Ireland also pipes of a whimsical form are common.
French Pipes.[Back to Contents]
CHAPTER VII.
PIPES AND SMOKERS. (Continued.)
In Russia and Denmark as also in Norway and Sweden the pipes are more simple and are principally formed of wood sometimes tipped with copper but usually of inferior material and work when compared with French and German pipes. The German pipes considered as works of art are doubtless the finest made. Many are made of meerschaum (sea foam). This material is found in various parts of Asia Minor. When first obtained it is capable of forming a lather like soap, and is used by the Tartars for washing purposes. The Turks use it for pipes which are made in the same way that pottery is and afterwards soaked in wax and is then ready for smoking. It heats slowly and is capable of greater absorption than any other material used in pipe making. To properly color a meerschaum is now considered as one of the fine arts and when completed is considered quite a triumph. When the pipe takes on a rich deep brown tint it is considered a valuable pipe and is watched and guarded as a most valuable treasure.
M. Ziegler thus describes the source whence the considerable annual supply of meerschaum for meerschaum pipes is derived:
"Large quantities of this mineral so highly esteemed by smokers, comes from Hrubschitz and Oslawan in Austrian Moravia where it is found embedded between thick strata of serpentine rock. It is also found in Spain at Esconshe, Vallecas and Toledo; the best however comes from Asia Minor. The chief places are the celebrated meerschaum mines from six to eight miles southeast of Eskis chehr, on the river Pursak chief tributary to the river Sagarius. They were known to Xenophon, and are now worked principally by Armenian Christians, who sink narrow pits, to the beds of this mineral, and work the sides out until water or imminent danger drives them away to try another place. Some meerschaum comes from Brussa, and in 1869 over 3,000 boxes of raw material were imported from Asia Minor at Trieste, with 345,000 florins. The pipe manufacture and carving is principally carried on in Vienna and in Rhula, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The commercial value of meerschaum carving at these places may be estimated at $2,000,000 annually. However very large quantities of them are not made from genuine but artificial material. The waste from these carvings is ground to a very fine powder, and then boiled with linseed oil and alum. When this mixture has sufficient cohesion, it is cast in molds and carefully dried and carved, as if these blocks of mineral had been natural. It is said that about one-half of all pipes now sold are made from artificial meerschaum. Meerschaum is one of the lightest of minerals and it is said that in Italy bricks have been made of it so light that they would float on the top of the water. Some pipes (doubtless owing to the quality of meerschaum) take on more color in a given time than others this is owing in a great measure however to the thickness of the bowl."