Meerschaum Lined Colorado Cutty Smooth Briar Estate Pipe - Vulcanite Fishtail Stem, Metal Tenon

A briar cutty with a meerschaum cup set into the bowl. The shank is stamped for exactly that: MEERSCHAUM LINED, and below it, COLORADO. No maker's name appears anywhere on the pipe.

The cutty is one of the oldest shapes in the pipe smoking world, descended from the short clay pipes once called cutties in Scotland - a name that simply meant short. When the shape moved into briar it kept the proportions that made the clay original work in the hand: a compact bowl, a shank of no great length, nothing about it built for a rack. This example runs 157mm overall with a bowl standing 45mm tall, on the larger side for the type but still within the shape's working range. It is a pipe meant to be held and smoked, not displayed bent over a stand.

Meerschaum lined means the bowl is not solid briar throughout. A separate cup of meerschaum sits inside the briar shell, so the tobacco burns against meerschaum rather than wood. Meerschaum is a soft, porous mineral that has been prized for pipe bowls since the eighteenth century because it smokes cool and takes on color as it is used, absorbing tars and oils rather than letting them build up as cake the way briar does. Fitting a meerschaum cup inside a briar exterior gives a smoker that cooler, more forgiving chamber while keeping the strength and handling of a briar shank and stem on the outside - briar does not chip the way solid meerschaum can, and it takes a stain and a polish meerschaum will not hold.

COLORADO, stamped beneath the lining mark, names the stain: a reddish-brown finish, a shade used across the trade for decades and borrowed originally from the coloring scale used to grade cigar wrapper leaf. It is a finish choice, not a brand or a grade of briar.

The stem is vulcanite, tapered from shank to a fishtail bit - the mouthpiece flares and splits slightly at the tip, spreading the bite surface so it sits more comfortably against the lip and teeth than a plain rounded button does. The tenon is metal rather than the vulcanite tenon most stems are cut with in one piece. A metal tenon threads or fits into the stem and shank separately, a small point of extra engineering in an otherwise simple mounting, and one worth noting on inspection since it is the part most likely to show wear at the joint over time. There is no filter fitted; the smoke draws straight through from chamber to bit.

THE MARKS
- Shank stamp: MEERSCHAUM LINED
- Shank stamp: COLORADO

Condition: the pipe is described as pre-smoked and in good condition. Stain scratches are present on the shank. No cracks, fills, or repairs are noted.

THE MEASUREMENTS
Length 157mm (6.3") - bowl height 45mm (1.8") - bowl width 33mm (1.3") - bowl depth 40mm (1.6") - chamber diameter 17mm (0.7") - weight 1.2 oz

Finish and grain: see the photographs.

A meerschaum-lined bowl inside a briar cutty, stained Colorado, on a metal-tenoned vulcanite stem with a fishtail bit - a working combination of two bowl materials in one shape, sold as found.

Ships from the Faridunhill / Pipe Collectors Encyclopedia archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe.

SKU: 216