Featured Is this a pipe and match holder?

This looks like a really old ceramic pipe and match holder -- but the holes in back seem too close together for pipes. Something has broken off that the old man was holding (maybe a pipe -- see last photo). I'm wondering if anyone has seen anything similar, knows how old it is and who made it. It's marked 19 or 79 EE inside. I haven't been able to find anything like it online. I'm afraid to clean it because a lot of paint has already flaked/chipped off. Any information would be appreciated.

 

It looks like I put a duplicate photo in my thread.

 

Thank you for the tip.

 

I didn't think of cigarettes, but now I get the size and spacing of the holes. Thank you.

 

There seems to be some type of mark, but I can't read it, so tried to sharpen a photo, but still can't make it out.

 

Just curious . . . why do you think it looks like a Confederate soldier?

 

No other marks that I can see. I did, however, notice that the head broke off and has been glued back on. Is it even worth trying to sell?

 

I was wondering about that too -- I don't know anything about civil war uniforms, but he looks like an old man who's fallen on hard times (because of the patch pants and tattered top hat), but likes to wear his uniform jacket with the medal on the lapel???

 

During the Civil War the Confederate soldiers wore gray uniforms and Union soldiers wore navy blue uniforms (for as long as those uniforms lasted in the heat of battle).

Here is a small portion of the poem "The Blue and the Gray":

The Blue And The Gray
Francis Miles Finch (1827-1907)

By the flow of the inland river,
Whence the fleets of iron have fled,
Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver,
Asleep are the ranks of the dead:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Under the one, the Blue,
Under the other, the Gray
These in the robings of glory,
Those in the gloom of defeat,
All with the battle-blood gory,
In the dusk of eternity meet:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgement-day
Under the laurel, the Blue,
Under the willow, the Gray. . . .


http://www.civilwarhome.com/blueandgray.html

 

Number looks like 79 to me, with the 7 written in the European manner, so a veteran of the American Civil War seems an unlikely subject. Think that's the right track though, an aging, impoverished war veteran. There's something about him that brings Garibaldi to mind.

How big is the piece? Would holes be large enough for cigars? not that this would be a good way to hold them. I thought the history of matches might give a clue to age, but friction matches, which this was meant to hold, & safety matches have had a long coexistence, so no help there.

Seems likely he was smoking, although another possibility is that he sells matches to make a living.

 

The size is 9" tall with a 6" x 6.5" base, and weighs 2 lb. 13 oz. The holes are about 1/2" diameter. The upper tier is about 3 3/8" from the table surface, which seems too high for cigarettes -- maybe small cigars? The lower tier is about 1.5" from the surface, which seems better for cigarettes. Whatever he was holding looks like it was attached to his right hand, the inside thigh area of his right pant leg, and on the grass near his left foot. Maybe a cane??? He's kind of a distinguished-looking man, maybe someone important at one time. There's a lot of detail in his face.

 

Beautiful, but sad.

 

Think this is probably right, except the middle point is his left knee. Spot on ground through spot on knee seem to be on a line that could run up to what's in his hand.