Gourd Calabash Pipe Meerschaum Cup Unsmoked New Old Stock

A gourd calabash that has never held tobacco is not an easy thing to find. This one is unsmoked, clean and new old stock: a true calabash made from a dried gourd, curving up from the shank into a wide horn-shaped body, topped with a white meerschaum cup and finished with a bent black stem.

It carries no maker's stamp, so it is described here by what it is and how it works rather than by a name.

The gourd calabash is counted among the great tobacco pipes. Its body is a dried African calabash gourd, cut and hollowed. The tobacco burns in the cup set into the top of the gourd, and below it the hollow body forms a large chamber in which the smoke can swirl and cool before it travels on to the stem. That space takes up moisture and much of the harsh taste that burning leaf can give, and the result is a smoke that is smooth, sweet and dry.

THE MARKS

- No maker's stamp

The shape is the one most people picture when they hear the word calabash: the gourd leaves the shank, turns upward in a deep curve and opens wide at the top, where the cup sits like the head of a horn. The cup lifts out, which makes the pipe easy to clean and lets the gourd dry between smokes. A separate shank piece with a ring joins the gourd to the stem, and the stem itself is bent so that the weight of the large bowl hangs low and settles in the hand.

The gourd keeps its natural surface, with the fine texture of the dried shell showing in the photographs. The white cup stands out against it and frames the opening of the bowl.

Condition: unsmoked, clean, new old stock.

THE MEASUREMENTS

- Length: 160 mm (6.30 in)
- Bowl height: 70 mm (2.76 in)
- Bowl width: 62 mm (2.44 in)
- Chamber diameter: 39 mm (1.54 in)
- Chamber depth: 35 mm (1.38 in)
- Weight: 88 g (3.10 oz)

Ships from the Faridunhill archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe. SKU: 490