I'm very fond of Barlings as many here know. And I am very very fond of Barling Quaints, those one-of-a-kind custom carved pipes that Barling made.
There is some lore regarding these, which I can't verify, but supposedly an otherwise high grade stummel that had a flaw which would preclude it ever being a smooth, would instead be turned over to one of Barling's master carvers (no, they weren't all carved by Horry Jameson) to be turned into a unique design, paneled, carved into various geometric shapes, fluted, cut with "tribal" slices and/or rusticated with what Tad Gage refers to as "chicken scratchings".
There is a huge variety of treatments and most of them are, at least to me, quite beautiful and interesting. I just won another of these earlier today. It didn't come cheap, but it's one of the more unusual stylings I've seen in quite a while and I really liked it. It's going to need a bit of work to get it ready for prime time, but that's part of the fun.
Thank goodness no one took a buffer to it, so everything is still crisp. Here's the "before". I'll post an "after" once it's been cleaned. Here's hoping that there are no unpleasant surprises.
View attachment 406761
Wonderful purchase Jesse, congratulations. Made about 1947 (or given the lingering impact of the War perhaps a couple of years later) if the box is original to the pipe.










