Separated At Birth?

Perusing eBay listings this evening I came upon this listing:
1923 Gold Banded Barling
Note the description in the above listing.
And it looked familiar. So I did a search in the completed listings and found this:
1923 Gold Banded Barling2
Looks like the same pipe to me. Thoughts?

A Barling with a gold band is a pretty rare occurrence. A Barling with a model number from the 1920's is an extremely rare occurrence - I've only seen three. A Barling with a gold band, a model number and a Maturiar stamp - well it's a first for me and I've seen thousands of Barlings. Two such a few weeks apart? Both with Finlay stamps? Astronomical odds. And since the grain pattern is exactly the same, it's safe to say that it's the same pipe. Yes, it's been topped. The bowl height is visibly shorter. Dings have been removed. I have no issue with restoration. But saying that the pipe "has survived in like new condition" is misleading (I'm being polite here), given that it survived with a scorched and chipped rim, and number of dings and handling marks until a few weeks ago. This isn't survival, this is surgery.
As for the "original" stem? It's not original. The button shape is incorrect for the period. The original 1923 stem would have likely had an orific bit and the profile at the end would have been curved, not flat. Even if it was a rare for the period semi orific bit, it would have had a curved profile not a flat one. It could be a later replacement from Barling or from Felix the Cat. The pipe is significant enough without making up stories.
A line has been more than crossed, it's been erased. I find this disappointing because I have always thought of this seller as a straight arrow and have bought from him. No more.

That seller is Gary Malberg, member of the Philly Pipe Club. He's know for his Peterson expertise and is co-authoring the upcoming Peterson book with Mark Irwin.

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Yep, highly respected, but now not so much by me. It's good that he's working on a book. He's clearly good at spinning stories. Gery's listings tend to be visually sparse, but he's always been very forthcoming about details when asked for more. As I wrote, I'd always considered him one of the few real straight arrow sellers on eBay and that's now ended.
It's not likely to go to a knowledgeable collector unless he can get it on the cheap because of the stem. Wrong period for that button shape. On the original listing I was surprised by how clean the stem was on a pipe that had seen a bit of knocking about. But this is eBay, the land of dreams and cons, so some enthusiast, not very critical in his thinking, will buy the made up story and go for it.
I doubt that Gary will have set a reserve as low as $400. I'm thinking more like $500, and he might get it or more if the period collectors get into a bidding war. They don't give a damn about market values and overpay like crazy. Given that the Chinese stock market has been in free fall recently, losing trillions of dollars over a few weeks, that money throwing market may be dry for awhile.

Jesse, my question is, was the Maturiar a line of pipes in the same way that the Forte was?

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Yes, I guessing a grade, like special or guinea grain. Maturiar = mature briar. Maybe burl that they judged to be especially old, or longer seasoning, I don't know. It seems to have been a fairly short lived designation.

I think the Chinese market has affected eBay prices lately. A good time to be a buyer!

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Perhaps. There's still a lot of money floating around. And with the Greek debt and Eurozone debt issues, might be an even better time to be a buyer next year, assuming you have any money. We're possibly moving toward "interesting times" yet again.