When I was a kid many grown ups around me smoked pipes, a practice that has been with mankind for ages. The pipes they used had many forms, but none of them looked anywhere near to this:
This tiny pipe (it is just over 8 cm long) came down to me from my late father in law, who was a physical anthropologist and professor of anatomy; he did not smoke it, but I can see what made him buy it from whatever antiquary he found it at: the carved skull is just perfect. The topology of the bones is just right; the jagged sutures separate the skull plates correctly; the tiniest details are there, like the mental foramens (passages for nerves to the face), the acoustic meatuses (holes for the ear canals), and even the styloid processes (needle-like projections at the bottom). These last are proof of real fanaticism, since they are very hard to carve in the narrow space between the braincase and the hand, and are near impossible to see there anyway.
The little anatomical marvel comes in a padded leather case:
The only anatomical deviations are the exaggerated continuation onto the jawbones of the grooves separating the teeth, and some subtle grooves and ridges at the jawline and the forehead. These seem to be embellishments added for effect with artistic license.
The pipe is made from meerschaum (sepiolite), a kind of clay mineral. Some googling finds that it is a nice antique but not unique: similar pipes – skull, hand and all – were a thing during the 19th century. They were called Memento Mori pipes – no doubt because of their shape, not because of their content. The minor fact that tobacco kills would come to light much later…