“”Marxman” ”Figural” “Camel“”

Photographed and written by

John M. Young

But

I remember an old advertisement for Camel cigarettes where the main actor walks a mile for a Camel cigarette. That commercial was made about thirty years after this pipe while the advertisement campaign by Camel was actually started in 1920. (https://tobacco-img.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/06212512/camel_creativehistory.pdf) I still associate camels with tobacco. If you have followed my blog for any time you have seen me restore several Marxman pipes. I admit to being a Marxman fanboy. Having read about and seen images of Robert Marx’s figural pipes I knew I wanted to have one in hand. That is where this camel enters the story. I saw the photo from the eBay listing:

Background

As I said earlier, I have restored several Marxman pipes this year. I will link a couple which I think did a fair job at documenting the company history: Marxman Jumbo and Marxman Mel~O for those who are interested in reading about this amazing company.

Back to the pipe in hand, The eBay listing photo was not a great photo and the others were no better.

I could tell, kind of, that this was a similar camel from the 1950 Marxman catalog.

Image above is from pipedia.org circa 1950s catalog. Now, I know that the above image is not stellar quality but I think the camel in hand looks to be of better quality than the quality of the carved pipe in the catalog image. There seems to be a great difference in the carving quality of some of the Marxman carved figural pipes which I have seen photos of. I can’t help but wonder if the figurals from the early 1940s were of a higher quality than those of the 1950s. Allow me to show a couple of screen captures from Etsy and eBay of recent auctions to make this point.

The first two images below appear to be rather good quality carvings and I realize that image quality plays a major role in assessing the apparent quality of a piece.

While the next two images show carvings of a lower quality or lesser detail:

All of the pipes are listed as “Marxman” but stampings of the shank can only be verified on the Ubangy Male and the parrot pipes.

MasterCraft purchased Marxman in 1953 and started importing pipes from France and Italy. These foreign made Marxman pipes do not have the “magic” of the Marxmans made in New York. I cannot quantify the magic and I do have a French made Marxman spigot that is a truly wonderful smoking pipe but there is just something missing from the Marxmans after the sale to Mastercraft.

The Restoration

The Camel got itself a nice soft piece of denim to rest upon.

The first stem was the reaming of the tobacco chamber.

The very deep tobacco chamber. The Kleen-Reem was used for this due to its reach. The chamber was also scraped with the Smokingpipes Low Country reaming knife and sanded with 220 sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel.

The stummel was then taken to the sink for a scrub with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a nylon scrub brush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel.

Back at the workbench the briar was looking better without the years of accumulated dirt and grime. Fortunately it did not smell like a wet camel.

There was still some lava present in the carvings on the rim. I cleaned this with 95% ethyl alcohol and a brass brush.

I failed to photograph the cleaning of the shank. I guess I was so excited to be working on a Marxman figural that I lost myself in the task.

I did regain my composure while cleaning the stem. This was done with 95% ethyl alcohol and bristle pipe cleaners. You can see from the pipe cleaners, in the photo below, that the stem was in need of a cleaning. I assure you that the shank was also quite dirty and required many scrubbings with a nylon shank brush, alcohol dipped cotton swabs and folded pipe cleaners.

The stem exterior was in far better shape than the interior. It had slight tooth chatter but no deep dents.

I filed the tooth chatter with a small flat file on both the top and bottom of the stem.

I wrapped the shank in painters tape to protect it during the sanding. Oh, below you can see how the lava cleaned up from the rim too. Sorry for not photographing that cleaning.

The stem was sanded with a series of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between each sponge I rubbed the stem with mineral oil and wiped it with a paper towel.

The stem was then worked with micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000. Between each pad the stem was rubbed with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel.

The stummel had a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm rubbed into the carvings by a baby toothbrush.

The Restoration Balm was allowed to work it’s magic for 20 minutes. It was then vigorously hand buffed with an inside out athletic sock to remove the excess balm.

I cleaned the baby toothbrush by dipping it into 95% ethyl alcohol and rubbing the brush on the denim piece. This was repeated several times to remove all of the Restoration Balm on the brush bristles. I then used the baby toothbrush to apply Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax to the stummel. I buffed the stummel with a shoeshine brush then with a fluffy microfiber polishing cloth.

The pipe was taken to the buffer where I applied several coats of carnauba wax to the stem and to the smooth heel where the briar was stamped. I did not apply carnauba to the carved surfaces of the stummel. The stem was hand buffed with the microfiber polishing cloth to further raise the level of shine.

There you have it, the 1940s Marxman Camel restoration. Although I am sure my oldest granddaughter will declare this is a llama not a camel. She has a thing for llamas and rearranging the pipes in my pipe racks. I am very pleased with how this restoration turned out. I’d always wanted to lay hands on a Marxman figural and this one was a beauty. The briar looks great, cleaned and conditioned. The stem polished-up wonderfully and together they are quite stunning. Filling the entire cavernous bowl would provide lengthy smoke. I am thinking at least a couple of hours. Certainly enough time to walk a mile.

The dimensions of this Marxman Jumbo C are:

Length: 6.08 in./ 154.65 mm.
Weight: 2.67 oz./ 75.60g.
Bowl Height: 3.5 in./ 80.00 mm.
Chamber Depth: 2.24 in./ 57.00 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.79 in./ 20.07 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.57 in./ 39.88 mm.

I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.