19th C. Meerschaum Pipe with Figurehead-esque Female Bust collapsible egg basket ) Earlyish 20th century I

) Earlyish 20th century I believe

in this case a sister to her brother

To my eye this "crock study" quite transcends itself as a study (an art school exercise I might guess)

initialing it at right

19th C. Meerschaum Pipe with Figurehead-esque Female Bust collapsible egg basket ) Earlyish 20th century IWhile I pass most by most, occasionally I come across on antique meerschaum pipe that I really fall in love with, and this is very much one of those. What a face! She looks to me rather like a lioness, and a bit of a sphynx too, and she's arched like the figurehead of a ship, with little cluster of flowers at the tip of the bow. My guess is earlier than later 19th c. on her, but I'm not an expert. (Meerschaum pipes were carved of the mineral