Eyup Sabri

Eyup Sabri (1948 - 16 May 2005) is a Turkish meerschaum master known for the density of the carving on his figurative bowls and for the horn mouthpieces he used almost without exception. His name is considered one of a handful taken as a benchmark among carvers working this material. Documented information about his life, however, is surprisingly scant; most of what is known today has been pieced together from his signed pipes and collection records.

The Road to the Bench

The account of the master's early years rests on a single promotional text and is not backed by an independent archival record. According to this account, Sabri was born in 1948 in Eskişehir, the center of the meerschaum craft, and came to know the stone at the bench of his father, himself a well-known carver, at the age of six. The same source states that he studied engineering, kept carving alongside his primary profession for a long time, and moved to full-time pipemaking only at the insistence of Irving Korn, founder of Royal Meerschaum Pipe Co. Collector records also mention that he worked side by side with Şevket Gezer during the same period.