SMALL SIZE Stamped Figural Human Face Pocket Pipe - Antique Carved Briar Estate Pipe

The bowl is carved as a human face, and the shank carries a stamp the seller read directly off the briar: SMALL SIZE.

No maker's name appears on this pipe. What is stamped is a size designation, not a brand mark, and we do not attach a maker's name where none is present. The seller describes the design as one that was once well known across Europe, though no firm's name travels with that description, and we name none here.

Face pipes - bowls carved to render a human visage rather than a plain geometric form - are among the older figural traditions in European pipe carving. Carvers worked anonymous faces, caricatures, and stylized heads into both meerschaum and briar through the nineteenth and into the twentieth century, cutting across the block's natural grain lines to render brow, nose, and jaw in relief. That cross-grain carving is exacting work: the carver sacrifices the long, continuous grain a plain bowl would show in order to keep the features readable, and it is common for figural bowls of this kind to carry small chips or dents at the high points of the relief, since those points sit thinnest and proudest of the wood.

A pocket pipe is a purpose, not a style: a bowl and shank built short and light enough to travel in a coat pocket rather than sit in a rack or on a desk. Before pre-packaged tobacco and pocket lighters made a quick smoke easy, a small pipe like this one served exactly that need - a modest chamber for a short smoke, not an evening's session. At 135mm overall with a 27mm-deep chamber, this example sits at the compact end of that range.

The visible geometry is a small, upright bowl with the carved face forming the front wall, joined to a shank and stem sized to match. No catalogue shape name is stamped or otherwise established for this piece, so none is asserted here; the face relief and the pocket-scaled proportions are the pipe's identifying features.

Finish and grain: see the photographs.

THE MARKS
- Shank stamped SMALL SIZE, read directly off the pipe by the seller

Condition: pre-smoked. The seller reports it in good condition overall, describing the piece as very old, with dents and a tiny chip to the briar. No cracks or repairs are reported. Beyond these points, refer to the photographs for a full visual assessment.

THE MEASUREMENTS
Length 135mm (5.4") - bowl height 42mm (1.7") - bowl width 33mm (1.3") - chamber depth 27mm (1.1") - chamber diameter 17mm (0.7") - weight 1.2 oz

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

SKU: 241