19th C. Meerschaum Pipe with Figurehead-esque Female Bust collapsible egg basket Signed on the bottoms but

Signed on the bottoms but I can't make out the signature

Dennis Schwartz reviews

in this case a sister to her brother

I swooned when I saw this

who seems to have exhibited actively between the late 1800s and 1930s

19th C. Meerschaum Pipe with Figurehead-esque Female Bust collapsible egg basket Signed on the bottoms butWhile I pass most by most, occasionally I come across on antique meerschaum pipe that I really fall in love with, and this is very much one of those. What a face! She looks to me rather like a lioness, and a bit of a sphynx too, and she's arched like the figurehead of a ship, with little cluster of flowers at the tip of the bow. My guess is earlier than later 19th c. on her, but I'm not an expert. (Meerschaum pipes were carved of the mineral