Siyahi

Siyahi is a name that appears in international pipe brand compilations as a Turkish-origin meerschaum pipe brand. According to the record, the brand belonged to a meerschaum pipe company of the same name; the company's founding year, founder, the city where its workshop stood, and how long it operated remain unknown. In this respect, Siyahi is a typical example of brand names whose products have survived while their corporate trail has been erased.

Spelling of the Name and Details on Record

Information about the brand rests on a single chain: a few lines in a reference compilation on pipe makers and brands, and the encyclopedic sources that have carried this note forward. Although the entry's heading is Siyahi, in the body of the text both the brand and the company title are written as "Sihahi." The difference between the two spellings comes down to a single letter; "siyahi" is a word in use in Turkish, while "sihahi" has no such meaning. For this reason the form in the body is considered a transcription or typesetting error; however, no second document has survived to show which spelling actually appeared on the brand's stamp.

The only technical detail on record is that the pipes were finished with acrylic mouthpieces and synthetic amber parts. The combined use of these two materials points to the period when genuine amber was first replaced by early plastics and then by acrylic; for more detail see the mouthpiece materials entry. This material choice places the brand roughly in the second half of the twentieth century, without allowing for a more precise dating.