Fikri Baki

Fikri Baki is a meerschaum pipe master who worked in Eskişehir. His full name is recorded in foreign sources as Fikri Baki Cetekinkaya; because of the short signature placed on the mouthpiece, however, his pipes are mostly known in the community as "F. Baki."

Baki, who entered the craft as an apprentice in 1969, gradually moved away from the figurative carving of his early years toward classic pipe forms and a contemporary Scandinavian line. His main reputation comes from adapting techniques and materials specific to briar pipemaking to meerschaum.

From a Basket-Weaving Village to the Bench

Sources state that Baki came from Sepetçi, a village associated with Eskişehir's meerschaum quarries. The village's name was later changed to Beyazaltın, based on the description of the stone as "white gold." In settlements where the raw material is dug straight from the ground, it is customary for children to sit at the bench at an early age. According to the record, Baki began his apprenticeship in 1969 and trained through the 1970s under the master carvers of the day. Eskişehir carving's repertoire in those years was heavily figurative: the bowl was turned into a face, a scene, or an animal's head, and mastery was measured by the depth of the relief.