Help Dating Pre-Trans Barling

If the pic of the actual logo were better, I could probably give you a tighter range for dating. The earliest that the pipe could have been made is 1939-40. Barling expanded its range of sizes around that time, first listing them in the 1940 edition of Tobacco World, the British trade publication. Prior to 1940, they made three standard sizes, small, medium, and large.

From the general shape of the Barling curve, it looks like a 1940's pipe, but I'd need to have a clear picture of the actual stamp to tell you about when.

The crossed Barling stamp on the stem had been in use since the 1920's, so it doesn't really apply here as an aid for dating this pipe.

Does the underside of the stem have anything stamped on it? A patent number will tighten the range to the 1940's. A stamp that says "Barling Design" would place the pipe, or its stem, in the 1950's thru mid 1962.

Nice shot! That stamp is pretty consistent with a mid '40's thru early '50's piece. Barling was consistently inconsistent with their stamps. In any event, it's a nice score.

Was there a small guarantee paper in the lid of the box? Sometimes you can get a good fix on the period of manufacture by reading the guarantee and noting how many years they say that they have been in business. Barling would redo the language on the guarantee every five or so years. For example, if the language says that they been making pipes for 135 years then you can figure the year of manufacture to be around 1947-51. This assumes that the box and pipe are original to each other.

Interesting. Well, the box and the pipe are not original to each other. The EL size didn't begin until 1940. So, that trick won't work in this instance. But it's a good solid 1940's-50's era pipe. While I'd be tempted to place the pipe in the early 1940's, the kind of "Barling's Make" stamp is the wrong style for that period. In the 1930's thru early '40's Barling used a very distinctive small Barling's Make stamp.

Sable, Good information here. Do you have any idea when Barling's started using the four digit shape codes for the UK market, example 1245?
Dave

Something I found from the excellent pipedia article that may be of interest, referring to pre-trans shapes,
"... the Barling Company crafted numerous custom pipes on special order for their clientele. Special orders lack model numbers because they are not standard models."
Dave

Sablebrush certainly 'knows his onions' on Barling's! lol I'm a Barling's man!! Lovely pipe, want to sell it??? LOL

I don't know exactly when Barling started stamping the four digit model numbers for the European market, but examples that I've seen would indicate the early 1940's, possibly late 1930's. Stamping was inconsistent, though it became common after WW2. The English numbers are completely unrelated to the US Nichols system. Amongst my Barling reference I have a letter from Diversity Machine Works, who became Barling's US distributor in 1962. It contains a columned listing of all of the various model numbers, kind of a version of the Rosetta stone. The columns have headings that say Old Barling Numbers, Nichols' Numbers and New Barling Numbers. Following across the columns one sees that the different number systems are unrelated.

For many years Barling had model numbers for their pipes, but didn't stamp them on the pipes. Earlier this year I published a Barling catalog from around the period of the first World War. Every pipe listed has a model number, with different numbers, unrelated, for different sizes of that same shape. It's just crazy. You can view some pages from it on the Pipedia Barling page.

Lack of a number doesn't prove that the pipe was a custom order. But Barling made a lot of custom pieces for its clientele and those custom pieces lack model numbers.

When I undertook to edit the Pipedia Barling page I did so to try and share verifiable information and to dispel some of the myths that have become attached to the brand. With the latest version I was fortunate to get participation from both Tad Gage and Jonathan Guss. Their contributions have made it a really good source of information.

This is a great thread here.
A bit off topic, but still in the general ballpark...
...this pipe recently popped up and it certainly did have characteristics of a classic Barling pipe:

Smoking Pipe Rare M.Landaw(Early Barling?) 86 Straight Rustic Biliard.
...and there's evidence of these M. Landaw pipes existing, like this beautiful example that Neill A. Roan has:

http://www.apassionforpipes.com/neills-blog/2011/10/23/a-landaw-barling-billiard.html
...but his is stamped.
It's an exquisite Fossil!
The eBay pipe has some bare wood on the end of the shank that isn't blasted, Neill's pipe goes all the way.

Did Barling do their blasting differently during the different periods? Or did it remain consistent?
On the eBay pipe, you can just barely make out on the stem the imprinting of "hand cut", I associate such a stamping with Orlik, but I'm still very early into these old British marques and have much to learn, any other of the old Brit pipes have the "hand cut" stamped stems?
Is the eBay pipe a Barling?
Maybe a post-trans one?

Sablebrush52, That article has just gotten better and better, an contiually more informative. I say, Thank You.
Dave

Hi dmcmtk,
Thank you. It's been fun, and we're always looking for contributions such as images and documentation for the page. It's still pretty weak in the area of post transition pipe info and I plan to improve that in the next go around. Transition and post transition Barling pipes have gotten an unfairly bad rap. Some of my most enjoyable smokers date from these periods.

M Landaw was one of Barling's customers. One of my very early Barlings has an "M Landaw" stamp on it. Could the pipe have been made by Barling? Possibly, but it could have been made by Sasieni, Comoy, Orlik or any of a number of other pipemakers. There's really no way to know. Sellers on ebay love to add superfluous spin to their listings in hope of improving the result.

Barling came late to the world of sandblasting. There's no mention of sandblasted pipes in their product line before 1940. Why did they come so late to the party? In discussing this with Jon Guss, we came to the conclusion that Barling took a practical step at a time when supplies of fresh Briar were unavailable. Rather than discard or sell their less perfect stummels they turned to blasting them. I have one of the earliest, which is pictured on the Pipedia Barling page. Note the very deep and detailed ring grain blast. Also note the 1930's "small" Barling's Make logo and the lack of a "Fossil" stamp. The blast compares favorably with any of the Dunhill shell blasts from the 1920's -30's. I also have a few other blasts from this same period and these others have a more shallow and refined surface.

I would guess that the characteristic of the blast varies with the characteristics of the wood. As for changing blasting techniques, I wouldn't know. All I have to go on is the result. I have a couple of pipes that mix partial blasts with smooth paneled sides. There's definitely variety. The lack of significant blast texture at the end of the shank could have been the result of over enthusiastic buffing. Who knows?

Many thanks for the comprehensive answer sablebrush52 !!!

:puffpipe:
I had always thought that A.D. was the true sandblast father, but a couple of months ago I came across an oddity which threw me for a spin, as there exists no scholarly catalogue raisonné type of book all about vintage British pipes, one must mostly rely on internet information and there are myriad sources as well as mountains of misinformation --- it can be difficult to get a faithful grasp on what indeed was/is reality --- and I must thank you for all your hard work and willingness to share such valuable data-mines, your contributions are priceless, and since you mentioned Jon Guss I gotta say thanks to him as well, truly amazing scholarship going on with awe-inspiring results! ---
--- but back on point, earlier I saw a Mr. Can auction wherein it was written:
"The "SHELL" or "SHELL BRIAR" SANDBLASTED Finish is one of Dunhill's original finishes giving rise to many of the early Dunhill Patents. Although Barling originated the sandblasting process for pipes (on their "Fossils") they did not patent the process. So, Alfred Dunhill (who was never shy about copying what had been successful for his competition including the Vauen dot for the Dunhill White Spot, Comoy's oversize 800 Series for the Dunhill ODA's, and so on) went ahead and patented the sandblasting process."
...and I certainly can't say I have a broad enough knowledge base to counter that claim, so it had me thinking that possibly Barling had actually invented the sandblast pipe --- online research yields nothing much outside of Dunhill, and I reckon a lot of the trueblue oldtimers know what's what and I'll pay heed and listen up, even if they present an alternate origin or whatever, trying to adjust a serpentine history into my cranial quarters, soft skull 'n all :| --- it's all very confusing anyway because so little official documentation exists, very similar to how convoluted and mysterious the UK tobacco industry was also!
So, I'm glad you've set the record straight, at least in my mind, which had slightly wavered out of uncertainty.
btw,

I've seen some mighty fine Fossils that out-shell a Shell Briar for sure!
On an ending note, and a final question...

...how rare is a box like this?

It showed up on eBay last month, went one week and remained unsold, re-listed and then sold for only a few dollars...

What time period would you reckon it dates to?

I should have bought it that first week, I'm an ephemera nerd, but oddly it didn't pull me in...

although I did find it to be an awe of jawdropping beauty!

The guy to ask is Tad Gage. He is pretty much the authority on Barling's.

Tad is definitely the expert's expert. He's been extremely generous in sharing his knowledge and materials with me. This much I can tell you. This box is early, possibly 1920's or early 1930's. I was going to put in a bid to add it to my collection of Barling ephemera but missed the auction. The critical clue is in the statement on the inside of the box. By the late 1930's Barling had changed to a different design and included language that states how long they have been in the pipe business. That language is nowhere in evidence here.

I sent Tad a picture of the Shank stamping and told him about the "EL". He said the closest you can date the pipe is 1940-1962.