Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation

Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation is the most notable industrial venture in meerschaum pipemaking established outside Eskişehir. The company's starting point was a meerschaum deposit found very close to the surface around Kilimanjaro; pipe literature places its founding in 1955 and its founders in Nairobi. Tanganyika in the name is the old name of today's Tanzania: the country gained independence in 1961, and in 1964 united with Zanzibar to take the name Tanzania. Even so, the old name continued to be used in trade for a long time, appearing in British catalogues as late as the mid-1970s.

African Meerschaum and the Sinya Mine

The raw material comes from the Amboseli basin, stretching along the western foot of Kilimanjaro. Known in the geological literature as the Sinya Beds, the formation consists of carbonate rocks and magnesium-rich clays deposited in a semi-arid lake basin; sepiolite, the mineral equivalent of meerschaum, also forms within these clays, in the voids and veins of the beds. The deposits spread across both sides of the Tanzania-Kenya border. The company's long-running principal operation, the Sinya mine, is located in the Arusha region, Longido district, of Tanzania.

The stone found here differs markedly from stone mined in Eskişehir: it has low porosity and high hardness, and its cost also fell below that of Anatolian stone. These properties made it well suited to mass production rather than delicate figurative carving. Indeed, African stone appears not in showpiece carved pieces but in plainly formed pipes made for everyday use; the surfaces are usually finished stained in shades of black, brown and yellow.

Brands and Stamps

Production was carried out not under a single name but as a broad family of brands. Records mention names such as Kiko, Kilimanjaro, Countryman, Sportsman, Townsman, Kudu, Twiga, Tembo, Merlin and Caveman. Some of these come from Swahili: kiko means "pipe," twiga "giraffe," and tembo "elephant." The emblems distinguishing the brands also reflect the same geography; Kiko and Countryman are reported to have used an elephant figure, and Kilimanjaro a rhinoceros. Not all of these names were the company's own property: the meerschaum bowls for some brands, such as Townsman and Merlin, were made under contract in East Africa for British firms.

Pipes are generally stamped "Genuine Block Meerschaum" along with a shape number; "Made in Tanganyika" is also seen as an origin stamp. Among collectors this stamp is treated as a rough dating marker, since the name Tanganyika fell out of official use after 1964. Alongside solid stone, the company also worked imported briar bowls, producing meerschaum-lined and leather-covered pipes. Its best-known collaboration was with GBD, from which that brand's block meerschaum series drew its stone and workmanship; models tied to the series such as Iringa and Jenga still appear in GBD's 1976 catalogue.

The End of the Mine and the Company

Pipe sources write that the company formed a partnership with a Belgian firm and closed a few years afterward; no exact closure date is given. Official mining statistics, however, show the operation still active in the 1970s: the Sinya mine's annual meerschaum output was around thirty tons in 1972, fell by half the following year, and the ratio of usable stone recovered from the ore dropped at the same pace. The mines were eventually abandoned, and the area now lies within a wildlife management zone.

Production using African stone continued after the company's end. In Britain, London Meerschaum, and on the Isle of Man, Laxey Pipes, worked with the same raw material; Laxey also prepared meerschaum bowls for recognized brands such as Peterson. This production too came to an end as the East African stone ran out, with Laxey making its last meerschaum pipes in 2001.