meerschaum

plural meerschaums

1. uncountableA soft white mineral, chiefly used for smoking-pipes and cigar holders.

   1 more example

   He gazed around until on the lid of a spinet he spotted a promising collection of bottles, gin, whiskey, vermouth and sherry, mixed with violin bows, a flute, a toppling pile of books, six volumes of Grove's Dictionary mingled with paperback thrillers, a guitar without any strings, a pair of binoculars, a meerschaum pipe and a jar half-full of wasps and apricot jam.

   1956, Delano Ames, chapter 14, in Crime out of Mind

   Synonyms: sepiolite

2. countableA smoking-pipe made from meerschaum.

   The sale of part of his property cleared the rest. A large portion of his income was put aside to accumulate. Horses, pictures, wines, bijouterie, German meerschaum, and Turkish hookahs, were alike brought to the hammer.

   1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 330

   2 more examples

   At Paris, just after dark one gusty evening in the autumn of 18—, I was enjoying the twofold luxury of meditation and a meerschaum, in company with my friend C. Auguste Dupin, in his little back library, or book-closet, au troisiême, No. 33, Rue Dunôt, Faubourg St. Germain.

   1831, Edgar Allan Poe, “The purloined letter”, in An edition of Poems

   There was nothing else to do, and he was doing it to the best of his ability - having, in fact, fallen into a trance of admiration before a large meerschaum - when MacQuibble hove in sight on his way to the Life Class at the Gallery.

   1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 150