Vintage LARGE Cased DRAGON Meerschaum Pipe

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Vintage LARGE Cased DRAGON Meerschaum Pipe:
$85.00

This beautiful dragon meerschaum pipe is large and in a fitted leather case with a velvet like lining. The case closes perfectly and was custom made for this pipe. It will be a welcome addition to any collection. It has never been sold at retail or used.

Meerschaum’s chief use is forsmoking pipesandcigarette holders. The first recorded use of meerschaum for making pipeswas around 1723 and quickly became prized as the perfect material for providinga cool, dry, flavorful smoke. The porous nature of meerschaum draws moistureand Tobacco tar into the stone. Meerschaum became a premium substitute for theclay pipes of the day and remains prized to this day, though since themid-1800sbriar pipeshave become the most common pipes for smoking.

As they are smoked, meerschaum pipes gradually change color, andas they are smoked, meerschaums will turn incremental shades of yellow, orange,red, and amber from the base on up. When prepared for use as a pipe, thenatural nodules are first scraped to remove the red earthy matrix, then dried,again scraped and polished with wax. The crudely shaped masses thus preparedare turned and carved, smoothed withglass-paper, heated in wax orstearine, and finally polished withbone-ash, etc.

Since the 1970s, though,Turkeyhas banned the exportation of meerschaum nodules,trying to set up a local meerschaum industry. The once famous manufacturershave therefore disappeared