A GENTLEMAN'S COLLECTION OF EIGHT MEERSCHAUM PIPES
Possibly Vienna, Austria and Istanbul, Ottoman Turkey, second half 19th century

The pipes coming in a variety of shapes, six of them with fitted cases, two loose, each one independently worked with striking features including two pipes carved with female faces; one with a bearded man; one faceted and carved in the shape of a tower, featuring white metal mounts and nielloed silver fitting on the mouth piece; two smaller pipes carved with zoomorphic motifs, specifically a lion and a horse; another with deep cylindrical tobacco chamber and beaded frieze at the top; and the last one delicately carved with a nest of doves feeding their little ones; most of them with carved amber mouth pieces, all housed inside a tooled and gilt green morocco leather box, the largest pipe 14.5cm long outside the case, the box 8.5cm x 31.5cm x 14cm.