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Brand Dating Guides
Missouri Meerschaum made corncob pipes from 1869. The name Missouri Meerschaum Company cannot be older than 1907.
Updated 2026-10-27
Welcome. This guide helps you place a corncob pipe from Washington, Missouri.
A corncob pipe is made to be used up. Most carry no year stamp.
Our cabinet holds one hard date mark: the company name changed in 1907.
So the windows below are wide, not a single year.
Each rule has a rank: high, medium or low.
1869
Henry Tibbe was a Dutch immigrant woodworker in Washington, Missouri.
Our source says he began making corncob pipes in 1869.
Legend says a local farmer whittled the first pipe and asked Tibbe to turn more on his lathe.
We treat that story as legend, not as a record.
In 1878 Tibbe patented a process to coat the bowl with plaster of Paris.
He liked the cool smoke of the porous cob. He compared it to Turkish meerschaum.
That is where the name Missouri Meerschaum comes from.
1907
In 1907 the H. Tibbe & Son Co. became the Missouri Meerschaum Company.
This is the one hard cliff in our cabinet.
A mark that reads H. TIBBE or TIBBE & SON belongs before 1907.
A mark that reads MISSOURI MEERSCHAUM belongs from 1907 on.
Do not read the plaster-coat patent year of 1878 as the year of the pipe.
It is the year of the process, not a stamp on the cob.
By 1925 there were as many as a dozen corncob firms in Franklin County.
Most were in Washington, Missouri.
Missouri Meerschaum is the only one still working.
An unmarked cob may come from one of the others.
We have not yet listed those rival makers, so we cannot name them for you.
Cobs have wood or plastic shanks and bits. Paper labels and stamps change from era to era.
We have not yet worked out the label eras. Most cobs carry little that can be dated.
A plastic bit points to the years after the Second World War.
That rule is a rough guide only. Earlier bits may be reed, wood or vulcanite, and we have not checked the split.
The firm sells by model name, not by shape number.
Names in our sources include Diplomat, Country Gentleman, Legend, Washington, Pride and Great Dane.
No shape number key exists, so a name is not a year.
The firm showed pipes at the 1904 World Fair in St. Louis. Part of that display is in its museum.
A Harvard class pipe from 1906 is known.
The factory marked 150 years in 2019.
These are history points, not marks you will find on a cob in your hand.
A cob with no stamp is hard to date. Do not guess a year from the shape.
The Missouri Meerschaum name alone gives 1907 or later, not a year.
A model name such as Legend or Diplomat does not carry a year in our cabinet.
A cob from another Franklin County maker may be sold as Missouri Meerschaum.
A plastic bit is a weak clue. Treat it as low rank.
Each row comes from our Missouri Meerschaum cabinet.
H. TIBBE or TIBBE & SON mark
The firm began in 1869 and was renamed in 1907. The mark belongs to the years before the rename.
MISSOURI MEERSCHAUM name
The company took this name in 1907. The firm still works, so the top end stays open.
Plastic bit or stem
A rough post-war floor. Earlier bits may be reed, wood or vulcanite, and we have not checked the split.
What We Don't Know Yet
Published deliberately. If you hold the catalogue, hallmarked example, or period document that closes one of these gaps, write to us — corrections are credited. Every open question across the encyclopedia is gathered on the Open Questions page.
Changelog
Sources
Holding a Missouri Meerschaumyou can't place? Our shelves usually hold a few — documented to this same standard.
Missouri Meerschaum in the Shop