Blog by Steve Laug

Over the past several years Jeff and I picked up two very tiny pipes that are drilled and useable but so tiny it is hard to imagine smoking them. The darker one I have had here for quite a few years now. The brown one Jeff sent more recently in the past year. It came in a small box. I have put a Dunhill Shell Briar Group 4 Lovat in the photo to give a sense of the size of the box and of the pipes inside. The Lovat is 5 inches long, 2 inches tall, outer diameter of the bowl is 1 ¼ inches and the chamber is ¾ of an inch in diameter. In other words it is an average sized pipe.I took a photo of the pipes in the box. You can see the pair there. They are both carved or cast from gutta-percha. The stem and the bowl are one unit in both pipes. The bowl on the black one is a carved head and on the brown one is a egg and claw. Both are clean and unsmoked but both have a clear draw from the bowl to the button. I took them out of the box and put them side by side under the Lovat to give a sense of perspective.Both pipes are 2 ¼ inches long, ¾ of an inch tall, outside diameter of the bowl is ½ inch, the chamber diameter is ¼ of an inch. The photos show a difference, in actuality the pipes are both the same size. Both have a cross hatched finish on the shank and both have a cast ting around the shank/stem. The Egg and Claw are very nicely cast and the details are well done. The figural head is also well done with good details. There is no stamping on the brown pipe but the black one is stamped on the left side and reads BOB’ER. On the heel of the bowl on the black one on the left side it is stamped REG. U.S. [over] PAT. OFF. On the right side of the heel it is stamped DES. PAT. [over] 71062. I have looked on the US Patent site and was not able to find any information on the pipe. I took a photo of the bowl front to show the detail of the carving on the bowl face. Gutta-percha was cast so a mold was made for the pipe. The detail is quite remarkable on both of the pipes. Look at the carving on them both. The second photo below shows the orific opening in the end of the button. This gives a sense of age to the pipe.This pair of older Gutta-percha figurals – a carved head and an egg and claw are beautiful and so detailed for their tiny size. They will remain in my collection here as testimony to the art of pipe carving or in this case pipe casting. Thanks for reading this blog.