Meerschaum - The White Goddess

One of the most exquisite materials discovered for making pipes was meerschaum. The origins of this curious material long remained a mystery. In 1781 Johann Wiegelb explained how the misleading name 'meerschaum' (meaning 'sea-foam' in German) had come about: "In the Tatar language it is supposed to have been called keffekil or myrsen, from which latter name the word 'meerschaum' can easily have arisen through misunderstanding" ¹.
At a first glance the matt, milky white surface of meerschaum resembles ivory. However, it is in fact an alteration product of serpentine properly called sepiolite and found in the form of nodules at depths of up to 40 metres below ground level. One of the main areas where it occurs is around Eskisehir in Anatolia.

The special qualities that make meerschaum such a suitable material for making pipes were quickly appreciated: the porous material easily absorbed the condensate produced in smoking, resulting in a cool, dry and mellow smoke. Another advantage offered by the material was its softness which meant that it could be easily worked, thus allowing elaborate ornamentation. Initially during the 18th century meerschaum arrived in Europe in the form of crudely carved pipe bowls. These early meerschaum bowls display basic Turkish forms and have only simple relief ornamentation. As imports of raw meerschaum nodules increased and new techniques of working the material were developed, countless possibilities for form and decoration presented themselves and meerschaum carving rapidly advanced to become a specialised craft producing work of the very highest quality.

While the German cities of Lemgo and Ruhla may claim to have been the first to initiate serial production of meerschaum pipe bowls, Vienna took the lead as far as artistic quality was concerned.

Vienna made the meerschaum pipe an exclusive fashion article, an accessory that every elegant smoker aspired to possess. Whereas the snuffbox had been the object of prestige during the 18th century, its place was taken in the following century by the meerschaum pipe. Johann Strauss for example had his portrait painted clad in an eccentric red suit of clothes with matching hat and meerschaum pipe. The meerschaum pipe was soon not only a smoking appurtenance but a collector's item. In his Wiener Luft aus dem Volksleben der alten Kaiserstadt Friedrich Schlögel has a Viennese character rhapsodise "I once had eight and twenty pipes withal, among them a couple costing forty and fifty gulden." ² Considering that fifty gulden were worth approximately 500 Euros in today's money, twenty-eight meerschaum pipe bowls would have represented a small fortune.

In order to enhance the attraction of a finely-carved meerschaum pipe extreme care and patience were needed for the process of conditioning. Time was needed to achieve the desired even colouration which could range from honey-yellow to cherry red. Any smoker who found this procedure too laborious could purchase a pre-conditioned pipe bowl. Sydon Noltze, one of the leading Viennese meerschaum carvers, employed people at his workshop to pre-condition his pipes and give them the sought-after honey-gold patina before they were sold.

Viennese meerschaum carving won the highest awards at the World's Fairs, their quality remaining unrivalled by products from other countries. Soon upwards of 100,000 dozen meerschaum pipes were being produced in Vienna annually, the majority of which were exported. Paradoxically, the superb quality of Viennese carving was in part due to the catastrophic situation of the visual arts in the city at the beginning of the 19th century.
Since almost no public arts projects were commissioned until the construction of the Ringstrasse, many sculptors had to eke out a living carving meerschaum pipes: in his memoirs the sculptor Emanuel Max Ritter von Wachstein, an artist who later worked on the decoration of the Arsenal, recalled that "there was no call for other things in Vienna at that time." ³

Towards the end of the 19th century, when other forms of smoking such as cigarettes evolved in step with the increasing pace of modern life, the meerschaum pipe with its claim on time and leisure disappeared from view.

¹ Wiegelb, Johann. 'Chemische Untersuchungen des sogenannten Meerschaums'. In: D. L. Crell: Die neuesten Entdeckungen in der Chemie. Leipzig 1782
² Schlögl, Friedrich. Wiener Luft, Culturbilder aus dem Volksleben der alten Kaiserstadt an der Donau. Vienna, undated
³ Von Wachstein, E. Max R.: Zweiundachtzig Lebensjahre. Prague 1893

This large Viennese meerschaum pipe was made for the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873 as a display piece. The pipe bowl has the shape of a Gothic tower richly ornamented with tracery and figurative decoration. In the arcades stand pairs of allegories of the Arts, Science, Trade and Technology. Four amber medallions are set into the lid depicting respectively the Austrian double eagle, the imperial pavilion, the Rotunda erected specially for the exhibition and the mark of the company that made the pipe. The rich silver mount crowning the lid is worked in the form of the imperial Austrian crown. This exhibition piece was one of the first objects acquired for the historical tobacco collection of the Austrian Tobacco Monopoly.
Lit.: Fellner, Sabine/Rupp, Herbert. Austria Tabak - Die Sammlung. Vienna 1991, p. 71.

The carving on this exclusive meerschaum pipe depicts the story of Mazeppa. It was executed by the sculptor and meerschaum carver Johann Nepomuk Geiger around 1845 after a painting by Horace Vernet. A page at the court of the Polish king John Casimir, Mazeppa was punished for his affair with a married aristocratic woman by being bound naked to a wild stallion and sent off into the steppes.
Lit.: Fellner, Sabine/Rupp, Herbert (1991), p. 76.

The nodules are scraped with a sharp knife called a tara and then polished with felt. Left to dry, they harden and assume their typical whitish colour. After being polished several times with cloths of varying softness the nodules are buffed with a mixture of grease and wax and then graded for quality.

The landscape painter Franz Reinhold executed this portrait of Pater Linhard, tutor to Count Kukacs, around 1849. The sitter is smoking a cigar in an unusual meerschaum holder in the form of a 'Gesteckpfeife' (i.e., a pipe in parts).

Schönpflug produced a series of drawings chronicling the life of ordinary Viennese people. Here we have the typical Viennese cabbie with his meerschaum cigar-holder and tankard of beer.

Comparatively expensive, the meerschaum pipe quickly became a sought-after status symbol with which the elegant man about town liked to show himself in public at the coffee house.

Under the title of 'Henbane and Poppy' this design shows an elegantly carved cigar holder with an amber mouthpiece.

This cigar holder in the shape of a pipe-smoking jockey with riding whip and crossed legs displays the honey-gold to cherry red patina which is obtained only after careful conditioning of the meerschaum.

This cigar holder carved with a representation of a ferocious boar standing over a dead hound is an example of the broad range of subjects used to decorate meerschaum objects.

This three-dimensionally modelled pipe bowl displaying the features of Emperor William I wearing the imperial German crown is an example from the genre of the portrait pipe. Besides the superb meerschaum carving it also features ornate carving on the amber mouthpiece.

This two-part pipe bowl was made at the workshop of Sydon Noltze, the enfant terrible of the Viennese meerschaum-carving industry. This eccentric artist could not tolerate any criticism, as illustrated by the following anecdote: one of his regular customers ventured to express doubts about the quality of the bore in a pipe he had bought, as the meerschaum bowl was taking on an uneven colouration. Noltze promptly broke the meerschaum pipe bowl, which had cost 40 gulden, in order to demonstrate that the bore was faultless.

The form of the first meerschaum pipes followed that of clay pipes and early porcelain pipes. It was not until later in the 19th century that the meerschaum pipe evolved its characteristic shapes and rich ornamental and figurative decoration.

Representing the nereids Thetis, Galathea and Amphitrite, the decoration on this superb cigar holder plays on the misleading name of its material. It was originally believed that meerschaum (lit.: 'sea-foam') was the dried spume of the ocean's waves.

This portrait of Johann Strauss the Younger was painted by the Zagreb-born Franz von Byros who studied in Vienna with Christian Griepenkerl. The Waltz King is clad in eccentric red clothing with a matching hat and holding a magnificent meerschaum pipe.

In the 19th century a quality meerschaum pipe bowl was not only an object of prestige to be included in any self-respecting portrait but also soon became a sought-after collector's item.

Representing a native struggling with a giant python, this elongated cigar holder was made for the Vienna World Exhibition in 1873, as attested by the inscription on the case: Exhibition 1873 Vienna.

The foliage and tendrils carved on this cigar holder demonstrate the superb quality of work produced by the Viennese meerschaum carvers who had caused such a stir at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851.

This magnificent pipe bowl with its rich silver mounts decorated with portraits of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth was made to commemorate the silver wedding of the imperial couple. Above the portraits are the arms of alliance and on the curve of the bowl an allegory of Hungary.