Egg-bowl made of meerschaum

June 2026

In the period between 1890 and 1920, the egg-bowl was a celebrated pipe model. This example is a tobacco pipe with an egg-shaped bowl of an unusually large size and a truncated stem which has a sharp edged cuff. The prototype of this was made of meerschaum, though later versions appeared in other materials. The popularity of the egg-bowl was mainly in Wallonia or eastern Belgium, but the reason for this is not known. In any case, the smoker in that area was offered a wide choice, available in different qualities from block meerschaum to pressed or cast. The pipe depicted is made of pressed meerschaum and was cast in a mould by mixing meerschaum grit with glue. Because this pressed meerschaum does not or hardly colour, the pipe was pre-colored. This has been done very strikingly here. The stem and bowl base have been given a dark goudron color, the upper half of the bowl is lighter and more brownish. This finish refers to the so-called double cire, where a wax treatment of the meerschaum resulted in more or less intensive colours. The buffalo horn stem is a personal choice of the smoker. Usually the egg-bowl is provided with a stem that matches the size of the bowl, in other words, the larger the bowl, the longer the stem. Here a remarkably short stem was chosen, which gives the pipe a compact and therefore handy appearance. With this mounting the pipe was used by the smoker for a long time.

Amsterdam Pipe Museum APM 30.708

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