Polite notice - 1 of a number of antique 19th Century and vintage to modern smoking pipes I am currently selling which are made from Sepiolite in English and the German name for it is more widely used called MEERSCHAUM. In German it translates into " sea foam " which is a SOFT WHITE CLAY MINERAL and is often used to make tobacco pipes called " meerschaum pipes " or cigarette holders called " cheroot holders ".
Found mainly in Turkey but there are some other European countries and America that have small areas of it too. Most antique meerschaum pipes will have been made in Vienna, Europe though using Turkish sea foam. It can be found floating on the Black Sea.
Meerschaum has been used to make tobacco pipes from about 1723 and was found brilliant to absorb the moisture and tobacco tar and it soon took over clay being used for pipes. The older and more use a meerschaum pipe has had the darker the creamy white clay material goes.
You can google many pages about this fabulous natural occurring soft clay mineral material.
These antique and vintage items made from sepiolite - meerschaum can be miss identified by people with little knowledge of the material. I have been collecting and dealing in antique meerschaum pipes for nearly 45 years and the usual people that have no idea what an item is made from are customs officers and certain folks at the global shipping program department that seem to think it is ok to confiscate these items pass through their shipping program. They are so miss informed of the actual material they are looking at. ALL these pipes and cheroots of mine are 100% legitimate natural clay material to be bought and sold on ebay. They are NOT made of anything illegal. There must be an awfully large room full of mistaken identity antiques at the GSP headquarters in Lichfield as they really could do with a " course of common sense & identification of raw materials " which I would happily go down and teach the department what they are looking at. I am sick to the back teeth of ringing ebay customer support and trying to explain to them about what antique and vintage items are made of and what they clearly are NOT made of.
Global Shipping Program does not allow sepiolite - sea foam - meerschaum items to be sent through their program as there is a miss guided department there which is completely WRONG and miss informed about the natural soft clay mineral which these pipes are made from. They CONFISCATE the items and let the buyer know and refund them and then let the seller know and refund them as well. The seller does NOT got their item back and the buyer does NOT get the item sent onto them, which in my opinion is THEFT as the natural material is not a banned material. An administrator or head of department must have a really fabulous collection of antique carved pipes and cheroots which have been taken from the buyer with no good reason or explanation. So if you are a seller and reading this take my word for it do NOT send items like this using GSP as you will be disappointed with their shocking service. So these pipes and cheroots will be sent using Royal Mail or Parcel Force worldwide.
Please note: I have added 22 photos to the bottom of this listing to try and show the item in as much detail as possible so please take the time to view them all carefully.
Here is an antique smoking cheroot holder in its original leather case.
The cheroot is made from fine carved Meerschaum and has been formed into the shape of a nude cherub and naked erotic lady inside a large open sea shell or walnut type shell.
It has a Meerschaum end piece and an amber stem.
No maker's marks on the actual pipe or the case.
In collectable condition with normal signs of age and use wear. There are some tiny chips in the Meerschaum, .. the cherub's wings. The amber cheroot pipe has been cracked and It has been used. The leather case has signs of wear on the inside and outside. The clasp is a little loose on the box.
See the photographs so you can see what I am talking about.
Please see pictures for more details and visual confirmation of condition.
It measures approx. 4 and 1/2 inches long x 1 and 3/4 inches x 7/8 of an inch.
My stock ref: in cheroot box.
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Scale is usually an English 1 penny coin which is 20mm in diameter which is just short of 7/8ths of an inch in diameter, or a universal Coke can, and we all know how big those are.
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If you see A/F = a/f in the title or description it means "as found" condition which may have scuffs, scratches and damage.
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