Pipe Brands
Ak-Taş Meerschaum
A family workshop operating at the Atlıhan Handicrafts Bazaar in Odunpazarı, Eskişehir, known for classic and figural pipes carved from block meerschaum and for a family history said to span generations.
Ak-Taş Meerschaum is a meerschaum pipe workshop operating at the Atlıhan Handicrafts Bazaar in Eskişehir's Odunpazarı district. Written mostly as "Aktas" in foreign catalogues, the workshop is today run by Besim Aktaş; the family business is also known in Türkiye as Aktaş Taşçılık. The workshop is known for producing figural heads carved with faces alongside plain classic forms.
The Family's Account
In the family's own telling, the chain begins with two great-grandfathers, Abdülrezzak Efendi and Avni Efendi, dated back to the 1850s. The craft is said to have passed down through Neşet Aktaş and Uğur Aktaş to today's master. The number of generations differs between sources: the brand's own promotional material speaks of the fifth generation, while an interview given to the Turkish press speaks of the sixth. All of these names and dates rest on family narrative and have not been confirmed by any independent archive or trade record. According to the same interview, Besim Aktaş learned his craft from a master named Hüseyin Soysal, and his daughter Habibe Aktaş has also entered the business through meerschaum jewelry design.
The Workshop's Work
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Source: Pipedia, adapted under the CC BY-SA licence.