Native American Portrait Meerschaum Pipes
Portrait carvings of Native American subjects, typically a chief's head in feathered headdress, worked in high relief. A long-standing subject in European and Turkish pipe carving, presented here under descriptive titles pending naming review.
12 pieces
All prices on request
Chief No. 1
Price on request
Chief No. 2
Price on request
Chief No. 3
Price on request
Chief No. 4
Price on request
Chief No. 5
Price on request
Chief No. 6
Price on request
Chief No. 7
Price on request
Chief No. 8
Price on request
Chief No. 9
Price on request
Chief No. 10
Price on request
Chief No. 11
Price on request
Chief No. 12
Price on requestAbout the Native American Portrait collection
The chief's head is one of the most established figural subjects in the meerschaum repertoire, carved in Europe and Türkiye for well over a century. The appeal to a carver is technical: a headdress is a cascade of individually cut feathers, each of which has to be undercut to stand clear of the one behind it, and the face beneath has to hold its own against all that surrounding detail.
It is worth being direct about the naming. The legacy catalogue these pieces come from used terminology — including a racial slur in its internal filenames — that this atelier will not publish. The collection and its pieces have been renamed descriptively for launch, and the wording remains under review with the owner. If you have a view on how these pieces should be described, the atelier would genuinely like to hear it.
The carvings themselves are unchanged and unretouched, photographed from every angle as with the rest of the catalogue. Measurements are confirmed individually on enquiry.
Common questions
- Why is this collection named differently from the legacy site?
- The previous naming included terminology that is not acceptable to publish. The pieces have been retitled descriptively, and the final wording is still under review.