419. Irish Bog Oak Carved Pipes
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IRISH BOG OAK CARVED PIPES
When Mark asked me to contribute a blog covering Irish Bog Oak carved pipes, I first had to go back and re-read his original blog from 2019: “The Mystery of Peterson’s Patent-Era Bog Oak Pipes” (Post #143), in which he has already introduced us to most of this material. In fact, his post was what got me interested in these pipes in the first place.
A composite of bog oaks from the 1906 K&P catalog
The first image I ever saw of a carved Irish morta pipe brought back those strange nostalgic feelings you get when you see something and feel like you’ve seen it before, but from a time further back than you can remember. What that means, I have no idea, but I was very drawn to these pipes and now have a diverse enough collection that I think I can draw some conclusions that might make sense. But I also realize that most of the questions concerning these pipes can never be answered.
Let’s start with some things that we do know. The carved symbols represented are fairly consistent: Irish wolfhound, tower, castle, harp, shamrocks, blackthorn, and … yes, I’ve even seen a single example featuring a leprechaun. Any combination of these symbols can be found on a single pipe, but the shamrocks and harp seem to be on all of them, and the knotty blackthorn, which was seen in Celtic mythology as a sacred tree of protection, is found only on the pipe stems, creating the visual effect of a tree limb [see “Dark Mother of the Woods” and “Irish Folklore”]. The tower is also on most pipes, and the Irish wolfhound is found on a decent proportion, but is fairly hard to find.
You’ll also find a few pipes with a castle rather than a tower. Blackthorn depictions can be seen on some of the stems in my pipe composite photo, and other carved symbols are shown above. The pipe at far left shows an elaborate castle, which is unusual. Even more unusual is the next pipe over, which appears to show some sort of entry-way. I’ve seen almost the same exact carving on two separate pipes. The third pipe shows a wolfhound and harp, and the pipe at far right shows some of the detailed carving of an 1891-hallmarked pipe that will be discussed further in this article. The detail shows a wolfhound with a tower to the right and a very small harp to the right of the tower.
When we look at the symbols that K&P chose for hallmarking, we find the shamrock, Irish wolfhound and tower on the old nickel bands, and the harp on the silver ones. My assumption is that Peterson felt that these were the most important Irish symbols, and wasn’t as concerned about visual appeal, as each symbol had it’s on reserved space on the silver or nickel band, whereas the carvers of the morta pipes had to create a piece of art out of the symbols themselves. It might seem a little odd that the wolfhound isn’t found on more of the bog oak pipes, but where it does show up … it doesn’t look so great. I’m guessing its absence is due primarily to the fact that it was more difficult to carve than the other symbols.
Mark has already covered the fact that bog oak pipes were offered at many shops in Dublin as early as the late 19th century, and that Peterson almost certainly sourced these already-carved pipes from Irish artisans. One interesting thought, that might very well be true, is that when Peterson received the pipes from the carvers, they then cut off the mouthpiece area and replaced it with a screw-in stem of their own. It’s also possible that the carvers created their own one-piece pipes, but in addition to those, also created stummels specifically for Peterson. This seems likely for two reasons: first, it would be much easier to create a stummel with a thick mortise, as it would require a smaller block of morta and there would be less stem breakage. Second, the stems on the one-piece pipes were generally too thin for cutting off and fitting a screw-in stem.
That brings us to the various designs offered. Other than the two bent examples described previously, I’ve found one example with a canted bowl which looked very similar to an old clay tavern pipe. My guess is that it is the oldest of the ones shown in the composite photo at top, but there’s no way of telling how old, any more than there is with similar clay pipes. All of the other designs were simple billiards, the only major differences being chamber thickness, bit design, and whether or not they had separate stems. Some chamber walls are as thin as clays while others are as thick as briars. Curiously, the only example I have that arrived without cracks, was one with a thin-walled chamber. The bent example has thick chamber walls and was covered with severe cracks.
Bog Oak & Briar Shamrocks
It seems that the stems K&P used were generally (perhaps always) of amber or the greenish amberoid. Several examples have been found that have a sterling band with K&P stamping and short amber mouthpieces. Interestingly, all of these have been straight billiards. So the next question that arises is: why no bent morta K&P pipes? Well, the carvers probably weren’t producing them – I’ve only seen two examples. One had a stamped silver band that, while unreadable, clearly didn’t have K&P markings. The other is one that I was able to purchase and fit an amber p-lip stem to (shown in the composite pipe photo, at top). Mine has a smooth area for a silver band, but it’s impossible to know who finished the pipe, and there is no evidence in any literature that K&P ever sold a bent billiard carved from Irish bog oak.
Some other questions that I have, and which I can’t shed much light on: when were these pipes first carved? When was production stopped, and why? Could they be carved today?
Mark’s research shows us that bog oak carving (not necessarily pipes) was taking place as early as the 1820’s, but we have no idea when artisans began making actual bog oak pipes, or when they stopped. I have an example of a stamped bog oak ornament, and also of another elaborate non-pipe piece. I am convinced that the technique of stamping morta was only useful for flat objects. Besides just thinking about how stamping works, you can also see carving marks on the actual pipes – the examples I’ve held were all clearly carved, not stamped. The stamped piece, on the other hand, has very well-defined raised areas with no rough edges. I also believe that as it became easier and easier to produce stamped bog oak souvenir pieces, the time spent carving pipes no longer made sense. Like illuminated manuscripts, at some point it just no longer made sense to spend time adding carved designs to bog oak pipes, when the carver could make money faster by stamping and selling other objects—at which time K&P lost their source and of course quite offering these pipes. There was also possibly the competition created by similarly carved briar pipes, which were easier to carve (usually just shamrocks, a harp and some lettering) and probably brought close to the same amount of money when sold in souvenir shops. Also, Peterson was sending the unfinished briar stummels to carvers, so all they had to do was carve the simpler designs, as opposed to creating an entire pipe.
There are many other questions about these pipes that we will probably never be able to answer. For example, by the time Peterson began offering these pipes (at least as early as 1905 when the 1906 catalog was being made), how many carvers did Peterson actually contract with, and what was their relationship? While K&P sent unfinished briar stummels out for carving (we know this because some carved briar pipes have K&P stamping beneath the actual carving), the process was quite different when it came to the morta pipes – carved stummels were apparently created and carved by artisans, then sent to K&P for finishing (bands and stems). My guess is that Peterson would have continued this relationship for as long as they could buy the pipes at reasonable prices. As mentioned previously, that labor force dried up at some point – my guess would be shortly after WWI. We know Peterson continued to offer carved briar pipes much later than that (I have examples from the 1930’s). I haven’t been in any Irish souvenir shops lately, but I’m guessing the carved briars are no longer offered But that’s a subject for someone else to explore.
The 1891 WHC Morta
You might wonder why we rarely see carved bog oak pipes from anywhere other than Ireland. I’ve seen a few ancient ones from France, and we see a lot of undecorated modern morta pipes from other parts of the world, but carving them no longer seems to be popular. I’ve seen plenty of old clay pipes with Irish symbols stamped into them, but never a meerschaum. That seems odd to me, but perhaps some of you have seen examples? But I have seen two elaborately-carved examples of bog oak pipes with Chester, England hallmarks! What makes these especially interesting is that the carving is far more detailed than the Irish pipes we have been discussing, the carving clearly done by two different carvers. Both have silver-hallmarked bands by W.H. Carrington, a renowned British pipe-maker. One of the two was a 1903 hallmarked pipe sold by O’Farrell’s shop in Dublin (we know this from the case). The detail is intricate and raised, much like the pipes Peterson sold, but far more detailed.
An 1891 WHC morta bulldog
The other (shown above) is an uncased 1891 bulldog, also with WHC Chester hallmarks, but it’s unknown where it was sold. As you can see, it is very intricately carved, but the carved areas are not nearly as raised as the K&P examples. It even features shamrocks stamped into the silver band. It’s clear that these two pipes were carved by artisans with exceptional abilities that were far beyond what the Peterson versions displayed, which begs the question: why did Peterson choose to leave that pricier market to others? Also: was the O’Farrell shop contracting with highly-skilled carvers in Ireland, sending stummels to W.H.C. in Chester for finishing, then offering them in their Dublin shop?
Wolfhound, Tower, Harp with supporting Shamrocks
Finally, how about smoking these pipes? Regarding their physical properties, while morta is very hard, and smokes very nicely. But the old Irish bog oak that these pipes were carved from does not hold up well over time – all of mine except one arrived with multiple cracks, mostly in the bowls, but several had cracks in the stems as well, the high quality 1891 example being no exception. Fortunately, CA glue repairs were no problem. Mine tend to smoke a little hotter than most briars but also recover quickly. I find that they smoke similarly to modern bog oak pipes, but the wood in the old ones is denser and as a result they are heavier. While the bowls tend to crack, I found no examples with burn-out and I was able to ream out each chamber to complete smoothness. All of this just reinforces the point that the wood they were made from is hard and dense and so the cracks are less of a surprise. I’m guessing the Irishmen who smoked them over a hundred years ago also described them as “cracking”!
I inevitably lose or misplace files, and for System Day this year I lost misplaced the very first one I received, from D. H. Billings!
D.H. Billings CPG. A therapist friend who I worked with years ago once taught all of us at work how the goal of meditation wasn’t necessarily the reaching of some ethereal plane of existence, but was rather the simple and total emptying of the mind. No past, no future, no then, no there, no what-ifs or what-abouts – just mindful existence in that singular moment. A hitting of the mental reset button, if you will.
It took a while, but at some point it hit me that my most transcendent smokes – the ones where everything just clicked and where I walked away with a completely different mindset – were the ones where I was simply in the moment. These smokes were, in essence, their own meditations. And, of course, the System Pipe provides an easy, effortless smoke that allows for this to happen more often than not. No fuss, no muss, no gurgles or wet goopy tobacco, just easy smokes that allow for that mindfulness. It is one of the main reasons as to why I have as many of these pipes as I do (outside of their own badassery).
Rob Denholtz CPG wrote with an interesting question this week: “I have several Standard Systems and some have domed ferrules, while others are flatter. Is there a date range for the different shapes?”
An XL315 Hinch Mount (named after Jason Hinch, Peterson’s silversmith)
The shape of the ferrule depends largely on the shape of the wood underneath it (but not entirely, as those of us with severely dented ferrules can attest). The shape varies first according to the bowl turner—whether in Dublin (1890-1984), London (1937-1963) or sometimes out-sourced (France, Patent era and then randomly in the Early and Late Republic, plus Isle of Man in the 1960s, then finally 100% in Greece and Italy (1985-present). Second, there is the silversmith, who develops a style that David Blake (silversmith now retired) told me in 2013 is so unique that he can name the maker of the ferrule back to the 1940s). What I labeled the “Hinch Mount” in the big Peterson book was actually just the shape of the end of the shank underneath. Third, remember that within an era there is always “THE silversmith” plus at least one other silver-turner, sometimes more, depending on apprentices, workloads, etc. And finally, until the early 1960s and sometimes even later, the ferrules were often soldered (the seam of which can be seen if you allow the silver to tarnish). This last I don’t wholly understand. I understand how the silver was cut from a long roll and soldered, but how was it then turned down on the boxwood mandrel?—I need to make another pilgrimage to the factory.