Barling Acquisitions-Part Deux

[jguss]

I'm traveling this week and it's much tougher to access my files, but I think I've got the "freak" designation sorted out. I thought it rang a bell so I made time to do some real digging.
I found an item appearing in a tobacco trade journal around 1959 (I've got the precise citation at home). It's headed "'Freak' Briar for Special Markets". It mentions "Horry Jamieson", as the man whose "...particular task is the making of "freak" pipes for special markets". Horace Jameson (his real name) worked for Barling for many years, before eventually moving on to carve for various Cadogan brands.
I have a mini bio of him somewhere that I created a while ago, but the real point is clear in the article; it states that Jameson "...provides briars with bowls that are oblong, square, fluted, ornamented in a hundred different ways; bowls of every conceivable shape".
It goes on to say that:
"None is designed on paper. Each is born under Mr. Jamieson's [sic] hands on the machine. As a craftsman he "feels" the finished shape in the bruyere block, which comes to him as a flat piece known as a "plateau" but he varies it according to the way it lends itself to working".
One opinion from a knowledgeable collector I know is that such "uniques" both "spiced up the line", and were Barling's way of salvaging bowls that would have been wasted due to manufacturing errors or hidden defects.
Given all of this I would be surprised to find a "freak" sandblast; but anything is possible!
Personally I believe this identifies the origin of the "freak" stamp on your pipe, and that it's one of Horry Jameson's. The "Q" stamp is less clear to me, but to hazard a guess perhaps it's a country/market code...
Regards,

Jon

 

[jguss]

Just spotted Jesse's suggestion that Q is for quaint. I agree completely. Rarity or not, it's clearly the logical answer, and will do for me until much better evidence comes along.

 

[sablebrush52]

Jon's finding is very interesting. Jameson was known to have carved a number of Barling's Quaints, so it makes sense. My question is whether he would have been active in 1925, as he was carving for GBD in the 1960's and I believe the 1970's. This would have had to have been very early in his career. When was he born?

 

[jguss]

Yes, very early indeed. My notes on Jameson are at home, but I know he was born in 1906 and working by 1920. Five years into his tenure seems a little quick to be cranking out "freaks", but it's certainly possible. Besides, I know for a fact his older brother William was a briar pipe fitter at least nine years before Horry entered the trade, so I'm sure he had the advantage of some previous familiarity with the business.
And of course nobody ever said Jameson was the first and only carver of "freak" pipes at Barling; maybe he had a mentor who taught him this particular skill in the early twenties...

 

[jguss]

I should add that starting at 14 wasn't uncommon. Bob Channan, for example, was born in 1895 and started with Barling c. 1909; he could well have been young Jameson's mentor when he joined the firm in 1920. Arthur May (whose focus was stems) also began at Barling when he was 14.

 

[graydawn]

Jon. Thanks so much for your insight.
Richard

 

[ssjones]

I love a historical mystery solved. In that era, at 14, I suspect many young lads were seasoned veterans in their field. Working in a pipe factory and carving pipes must have been a dream job compared to what other career opportunities that were forced upon youngsters.

 

[misterlowercase]

I love a historical mystery solved.

No doubt.
Full fathom five

into the depths,

if Jon Guss can't crack the case I don't think anybody can, this thread is just more proof of that.

:puffpipe:

:clap:
This thread also illustrates how random speculation (with me being the guilty party ) can sometimes take a foothold and be completely and totally incorrect, yet continues to get circulated because it might "sound right" or make a good story to add to the mythology - and it reinforces the fact of exactly how valuable careful research truly is.
The fact that FREAK was a factory stamp is amazingly cool, and it blows my mind!
I've been trying to get all the back issues of P&T, with only a few more left to go, and just today got the Melville cover from 2000 with Tad Gage's "the Mystery of Barling" article, which is what I dug into first and it's a great read, and, he actually mentions the "freak" stamp too!
Under the heading Miscellaneous Oddities he writes of the weird variety of stamps that Barling used, "Speaking from experience, I can only tell you of the ones I've seen. There are probably more."...

"Pre-World War 2 odd-shaped panels were sometimes "Freak", presumably because the great deal of hand-cutting required rendered it a freak of nature! I have also seen Barling pipes stamped "Super", and there are probably other unusual stampings to be found."

 

[ssjones]

Well that seals the deal and confirms Jon's comments.

 

[sablebrush52]

Jon is the best there is. So this pipe is interesting on a number of levels. Ron Harden had told Tad Gage that Barling didn't begin producing quaints until the early '30's. Barling expert, Mel Feldman held that quaints were produced starting in the 1920's and this pipe bears out that claim.
One of my quaints was purchased from Mel and he had dated it to the 1920's. His reason for doing so had to do with another bit of nomenclature, one which Hacker noted in his article about Barlings. The extra bit of nomenclature is a tiny carver's mark, an "R" that was hand cut into the wood where the other nomenclature had been stamped. Mel claimed that "R" marks denoted 1920's manufacture. Hacker wrote that both "R" and "L" carver's marks were to be found on a number of Quaints. These marks are not like the "Q" on graydawn's FREAK, which is a stamp. However, as tempting as it is to believe that I have an early quaint, the other stampings indicate to me that it's a 1940's piece.
The "super" stamp I have seen on Tro-Tubes. You can see one of these "super" stamps on a 1927 Tro-Tube posted on the Pipedia Barling page, courtesy of Kevin Chapman.