Great Grandad's Meerschaum Pipe

My dad gave me this pipe some years ago. It belonged to his grandfather. It is made from meerschaum and beautifully carved.

Turkish Block Meerschaum has been renowned since the 1600s as the incomparable material for the world's finest smoking pipes. Meerschaum is lightweight, incombustible and very porous. It gives the truest taste of tobacco, while providing a cool dry smoke. The purest form of meerschaum is found in underground deposits in central Turkey near the city of Eski?ehir. The raw meerschaum must pass through many hands before it becomes the world's finest smoking pipe. You can read more about it here

I would estimate this one to be at least 100 years old. You can see the specially made hard case behind it that opens like a guitar case and is lined in a silky velvet.