The Barling pipes from the 1960's are very good, and dare I say it...relatively undervalued in the estate market.
Shhhhh!! Dave, if people find out that they can buy pipes that smoke as well as anything on which they're spending hundreds or thousands of dollars for far less than a hundred bucks the prices will rise and we'll be screwed. As long as collectors believe the myth that Barlng pipes went down the drain after the sale of the company we're good.
Allen, that is a beautiful pipe! Congratulations!
As for the Smoking Pipes description, it's completely off. The terms, "transition" and "post-transition" as identifiers are pretty meaningless, which is why I no longer use them.
But let's say, for the moment, that the term "Transition" or "Early Transition" is useful. The Barling family sold the business in October of 1960 to Finlay. Finlay kept the Barling family on to run the busniess. "Early Transition" pipes can't actually be distinguished from "Pre_Transition" pipe because the nomenclature is exactly the same. The nomenclature didn't change for 20 months, until mid 1962, when the new numbering system was introduced. The "Barling's Make" logo was retained. So by the time any identifiers are changed, we're well into the so called "Transition" era.
In mid 1962 we see "Barling's Make" pipes with the new four digit numbering system. Also in mid 1962 the Barling family steps down from running the business for Finlay. Basically they were sacked.
In November of 1962, Barling publishes a second catalog for that year, but in this one they announce their new revamped line up of pipes and their new script "Barling" logo. That's the logo that is on the pipe that you bought.
So this pipe is no earlier than the end of 1962, and it is probably later since this shape doesn't appear in the 1962 catalog. So, Early Transiton, no. And, "Early Transition" is a meaningless term since there is no way to distinguish these pipes from pre-sale "Pre-Transition" pipes.
Your pipe is a "post-transition" pipe, because Imperial absorbed Finlay and took direct control of Barling in February of 1963. Imperial had owned 40% of Finlay for years before Finlay bought Barling. So, to the extent that a so called "Transition" designation can be applied to a specific pipe, it's late in the game. The so called "Transition" era ended in 1963, not 1968. All of this is a matter of public record.
It's much more accurate to use family era and either post-family, or corporate, era for Barling.
The briar is still excellent, though not the old Algerian briar. Barling lost their harvesting operations in 1954 when the Algerian War for Independence broke out. This is not a secret. Barling made a public announcement in the trades in 1954 that they were changing their sourcing.
The bottom line is that you bought a pipe that was made by many of the same skilled craftsmen that had turned out glorious pipes for decades. The wood from which it was made was sourced while the family still ran the business, though it's not Algerian. But that doesn't really matter as they knew briar and bought the very finest available from a wide variety of sources. The only metric the Barling family had was quality, not geography. And, it's a handmade pipe. Barling did not turn to machine work for their pipes.
Did the quality decline after Imperial took over in 1963? Yes. But it was a gradual decline, not a precipitous one. 1968 marks the year that the London factories were closed and operations were moved to Liverpool. After that, a number of English makers contracted to turn out Barling pipes, including Charatan and Ogden. Later, Nording took over the manufacture of Barling pipes for Imperial.
If your pipe is anything close to the quality of my "Post_Family" pipes, you're in for a very pleasurable experience.
And so it goes.
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