Is It a Pipe With a Lady or A Lady’s Pipe?
Details
A pipe with a lady, or a pipe for a lady? I've had a number of antique pipes designed to be smoked by women. They are as a rule diminutive and rarely have a bowl so beautiful (and noticeable). Although some people think this was a pipe made for a lady's use, I believe it was a gentleman's pipe. A gent with excellent taste for beauty. The meerschaum, a porous mineral soft enough to be carved but hard enough to be polished, was carved into the cameo head of a beautiful late 18th century woman in a Gainsborough portrait hat. Her hair flows in waves to beyond her shoulders. She wears a period fichu with a flower at the center. Her hair is in full body curls around her face. Her hat is tilted and has plumes with wonderful detail. And her face! Sensitive, expressive and it looks to me like there's a dimple on her chin. She has weathered the seas of time smoothly, with only the proper discoloration of the meerschaum. A trait of meerschaum is that over time and with use, it changes color. White at the start, the smoking eventually turns the meerschaum into rich brown-butterscotch.
The band holding the bowl to the stem is metal with no markings. There are no markings on the pipe at all, that I can see. The pipe in entirety is 5 1/4" long. The bowl is 2 1/8" high, and about 2" wide. The inside of the bowl is dark, evidence of smoking. Quite a showpiece, this pipe is a definite conversation starter and could easily be a focal point of a collection.