Eskişehir Meerschaum Carving

Eskişehir meerschaum carving is the craft tradition, centred in Eskişehir — the principal source of block meerschaum suitable for pipe-making — that turns this stone into pipes and figural works. A craft that works the soft stone with relief-level delicacy, it has continued since the first workshops opened in the 1920s, taken firm root in the city following a ban on raw-stone exports, and gone on to receive geographic-indication protection.

From Vienna's Workshops to Eskişehir

In the Ottoman period, meerschaum was a significant export item; the stone, however, was largely sold raw, with the carving done in workshops in Vienna and Budapest. For this reason the stone was sometimes called "Vienna stone" in Europe. In contrast to the deep-rooted history of Tophane pipe-making, which produced red-clay pipe bowls, finished-pipe production in Eskişehir only developed in the 20th century. Records indicate the city's first pipe workshop was opened in the mid-1920s by Ali Osman Denizköpüğü (1897-1961), who promoted meerschaum at domestic and international fairs and trained a great many carvers. The real turning point came in 1972, when the export of raw meerschaum was banned: with unworked stone no longer able to leave the country, carving became a stand-alone profession in Eskişehir, while block-meerschaum pipe production in Europe effectively came to an end.