New Additions Coming To The Pipedia Barling Page

[sablebrush52]

It may be a few weeks, or more, before all of this gets uploaded to the page, but here's a head's up for those of you who are Barling fans, Britwood fans, or those who have an interest in the history of pipes.

There will be two new additions. First will be the publication, with Jon Guss' permission, of his monograph on Nathan Nichols. Nichols was Barling's US agent and distributor from roughly 1926 thru 1962, and is the namesake for the Nichols Numbers. Jon tells Nichols' story and also dispels years of supposition and misinformation about the Nichols Numbers, which is very welcome.

The second addition will be images of the rare and mostly unsmoked Barlings that were in the Laxey Ltd. Pipe Factory collection which was auctioned off last March. The bulk of these pipes were of late 19th and early 20th century manufacture. The pipes shed new light on the history B Barling & Sons. In particular, a previously unknown Barling's Make logo stamp indicates that the company may have begun completely in-house manufacturing of a portion of their pipes as early as 1887, almost a full decade earlier than currently thought.

Exciting news for Barling nerds, all twelve of you!

 

[OzPiper]

Thanks Jesse and Jon for the research.

Most importantly dispelling the misinformation that gets accepted as “fact” just because it has been repeated by various sources without verification.

---

 

[Lemuel Pitkin]

Especially looking forward to the information about Mr. Nichols. I have had the impression, possibly mistaken, that in recent years his reputation has been represented as overstated. Curious about the whole story.

 

[georged]

Especially looking forward to the information about Mr. Nichols. I have had the impression, possibly mistaken, that in recent years his reputation has been represented as overstated. Curious about the whole story.

Don't get too excited.

Mr. Guss admits that he is only moderately confident that Mr. Nichols was wearing a necktie that had an odd---as opposed to even---thread count on June 9th 1937, or which of his two favorite tampers he used for his first smoke after tea on March 12th of 1955.

I mean, the guy is good, but some important things still elude him from time to time.

 

[sablebrush52]

Thanks Jesse and Jon for the research.

Most importantly dispelling the misinformation that gets accepted as “fact” just because it has been repeated by various sources without verification.

---

Thank you. Jon is easily the most knowledgeable pipes and tobacco history authority around today, only challenged by Ben Rapaport, and it's not a competition. They are both serious scholars. Seriously, the rest of us are not more than barely sentient grunting savages in comparison. So I was really pleased and not a little grateful when Jon allowed me to publish this piece.

There are a lot of interesting articles that Jon has written that are not publicly available at this time and I sure hope that changes.

 

[sablebrush52]

Especially looking forward to the information about Mr. Nichols. I have had the impression, possibly mistaken, that in recent years his reputation has been represented as overstated. Curious about the whole story.

You'll get the story of Nathan Nichols, what is known of it, as related by his daughter, Suzanne, and by existing records. It's a short piece. Whether his reputation is overstated or not, especially when considering that few knew he even existed, will remain something for the individual to decide. We get to let go of the myths, like that Nichols was Montague Barling's son-in-law, and other such tripe.

 

[Sig]

It really is interesting how most of the pipe lore is incomplete, unknown and mostly forgotten.
From years of pipes, nomenclature, pipe lines, factory history, pipe grades.....
Ive seen sooooo many different explanations on some things as "simple" as when a company started and what the confounded L stamped on my early transition GBD means.
Or when a company started with a different stamping. This is a big one. From Peterson and Dunhill, to Comoys and GBD.....when did they stop the brass rondel? At the transition. Well I have 2 post transition GBD with brass. Well, they used them until they ran out. Ok, one of my brass GBD is from the late 1980s. I have several from the mid 80s with no brass.......or do I? Obviously nobody knows FOR SURE.
And as I've found, many rabbit holes either end in assumptions, or just end.

 

[Lemuel Pitkin]

Jesse, really looking forward to this. All I "know" about Nichols is that he came up with the TVF and U.S. numbering system, and the story that he was married into the Barling family. I've already learned something from your first post: I only associated him with the post-war era...didn't know that he was the American agent since 1926. So when he was "let go" in 1962 (as per Jon Guss' s ANGELS article) he was already at retirement age, and this was not necessarily a reflection on his work for the company. I'll quit speculating now and await the article!
;

 

[sablebrush52]

It really is interesting how most of the pipe lore is incomplete, unknown and mostly forgotten.
From years of pipes, nomenclature, pipe lines, factory history, pipe grades.....
Ive seen sooooo many different explanations on some things as "simple" as when a company started and what the confounded L stamped on my early transition GBD means.
Or when a company started with a different stamping. This is a big one. From Peterson and Dunhill, to Comoys and GBD.....when did they stop the brass rondel? At the transition. Well I have 2 post transition GBD with brass. Well, they used them until they ran out. Ok, one of my brass GBD is from the late 1980s. I have several from the mid 80s with no brass.......or do I? Obviously nobody knows FOR SURE.
And as I've found, many rabbit holes either end in assumptions, or just end.

Most of this is forgotten because people put no value in it.

It's a fairly small percentage of pipe smokers who ever had any interest in the history of the pipes and tobaccos they smoke. That said, that small percentage is reasonably serious about a documented history over a strictly oral history.

For me and for others, the sleuthing is really interesting, and bits and bobs of information keep bobbing up, thanks in part to the Internet, which is not a complete scourge.

Had I not stumbled upon this auction on the internet in the first place, and had the skill to pull the highest possible resolution copies of the auction photography (11,000 x 11,000 pixel resolution in many cases), keen visual perception, coupled with a smattering of knowledge on the subject, I wouldn't have spotted early nomenclature that affects some aspects of our understanding of this particular maker.

I sent a copy of these new logo stamps to Tad Gage, at his request. Tad is the preeminent Barling expert, and his response was "great pipe archaeology".

We learn something new. Some parts of the puzzle get filled in, some new questions open up. Keeps it interesting.

And we offer the fruits of our inquiries to anyone interested.

 

[telescopes]

This is absolutely critical. Unfortunately, too many posters are perfectly content to post misinformation as if it we factual. With the rise in AI as a search mechanism, this mis information gets regurgitated as fact. This has happened quite a bit with the history of the Marxman Pipe Compan. Thanks to @towhee89 much of that misinformation has been corrected with his first hand sourcing of information. Sadly, I doubt it will prevent someone who wants to distort the truth from doing so.

 

[sablebrush52]

Jesse, really looking forward to this. All I "know" about Nichols is that he came up with the TVF and U.S. numbering system, and the story that he was married into the Barling family. I've already learned something from your first post: I only associated him with the post-war era...didn't know that he was the American agent since 1926. So when he was "let go" in 1962 (as per Jon Guss' s ANGELS article) he was already at retirement age, and this was not necessarily a reflection on his work for the company. I'll quit speculating now and await the article!
;

Well...the TVF stamp was trademarked by Barling in the 1920's IIRC, and Nichols had no hand in that. Barling had trademarks that they had registered, like FOSSIL in 1928, that weren't used until after WW2.

The US numbering system developed for him as a means of tracking market sales. I don't know how much involvement Nichols personally had with it, but Jon may know something about that.

He was nearly 80 when Barling dropped him as their US agent, so it was more a matter of age than anything else, and he died a few years later.

The Barling-Nichols story is pure bull shit. Always has been. Always will be.

 

[sablebrush52]

This is absolutely critical. Unfortunately, too many posters are perfectly content to post misinformation as if it we factual. With the rise in AI as a search mechanism, this mis information gets regurgitated as fact. This has happened quite a bit with the history of the Marxman Pipe Compan. Thanks to @towhee89 much of that misinformation has been corrected with his first hand sourcing of information. Sadly, I doubt it will prevent someone who wants to distort the truth from doing so.

It's always been the Age Of Liars. Start from that and look for facts, and be critical of those.

 

[Sig]

This is absolutely critical. Unfortunately, too many posters are perfectly content to post misinformation as if it we factual. With the rise in AI as a search mechanism, this mis information gets regurgitated as fact. This has happened quite a bit with the history of the Marxman Pipe Compan. Thanks to @towhee89 much of that misinformation has been corrected with his first hand sourcing of information. Sadly, I doubt it will prevent someone who wants to distort the truth from doing so.

Ive learned that a lot has to be taken with a grain of salt in this hobby.
I really appreciate guys like @sablebrush52 who find the information and have the receipts.
Many guys just want to sound like they know a lot to show off.
There are only a handful of experts I believe wholeheartedly. Now that ive learned of our resident "Bard of Barlings" reputation, I can add another expert who's word I can trust.
I'm not a huge student of the briar, but I love learning about the history of this hobby. I don't have a Barling pipe, but having read some of @sablebrush52 articles and such, I want one.
Thank god he's not a Bo Nordh expert......at least I hope he's not.

 

[telescopes]

Ive learned that a lot has to be taken with a grain of salt in this hobby.
I really appreciate guys like @sablebrush52 who find the information and have the receipts.
Many guys just want to sound like they know a lot to show off.
There are only a handful of experts I believe wholeheartedly. Now that ive learned of our resident "Bard of Barlings" reputation, I can add another expert who's word I can trust.
I'm not a huge student of the briar, but I love learning about the history of this hobby. I don't have a Barling pipe, but having read some of @sablebrush52 articles and such, I want one.
Thank god he's not a Bo Nordh expert......at least I hope he's not.

Here here. I too am thinking about getting a Barling to add to my British pipes.

But which one?

A quintessential example of the genre that is reasonably priced is what I want, but unfortunately, I am too ignorant to know what that should be. Any ideas, @sablebrush52 - is there a model and time period you would recommend for someone interested in learning about Barlings.

 

[Sig]

Here here. I too am thinking about getting a Barling to add to my British pipes.

But which one?

A quintessential example of the genre that is reasonably priced is what I want, but unfortunately, I am too ignorant to know what that should be. Any ideas, @sablebrush52 - is there a model and time period you would recommend for someone interested in learning about Barlings.

Years ago I got a Barling Guinea Grain in a lot from ebay.
It was in decent condition but there was a tooth hole completely through the bottom of the stem. The top of the stem just had chatter. I think someone needed to see a dentist.
I wasn't up to the task of repairing it or finding a new stem. I put it on ebay with full disclosure and pictures. It sold for $48. That was $10 more than I paid for the 5 pipe lot the Barling came from.

 

[sablebrush52]

Here here. I too am thinking about getting a Barling to add to my British pipes.

But which one?

A quintessential example of the genre that is reasonably priced is what I want, but unfortunately, I am too ignorant to know what that should be. Any ideas, @sablebrush52 - is there a model and time period you would recommend for someone interested in learning about Barlings.

I really comes down to what shape and size to you prefer. Do you prefer tapered or saddle stems? Barling made all of the classical shapes as well as some very individual pipes, like their quaints. I would suggest looking for a post WW2 family era pipe. These will generally have a full set of nomenclature, the logo stamp, size stamp ranging from ss for a small to EXEXEL for an extra extra large. I tend to like their EL or EXEL sizes, unless I'm looking for a long smoke, in which case the EXEXEL size works for me. Post WW2 pipes almost always have a model number. The exceptions are quaints and straight grains.

In good condition an EL or EXEL will run about $300 + or - on eBay. Prices on Barlings have seen a resurgence in recent years after dropping, like a lot of Britwood, in the late teens. If you can find them away from eBay they may go for less.
The 1930's and earlier have become quite expensive. Most of the 2 pipe cased 1920's companion sets I saw at the auction went for about $1200. Of course, they were unsmoked, so $1200 was a good deal for a collectible that would likely go for over $2000 on eBay. Then again, add the auction house premium and shipping and you're getting close to that $2000 price.

My favorites are EL and EXEL pencil shanked pots. Not the prettiest shapes but great smoking machines. Just start watching Barling auctions to get a sense of the market. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line.

 

[OzPiper]

Do an advanced search on EBay of completed transactions.
You’d get a pretty good idea of current prices
Of course prices will depend on condition, number of bidders and the vendor.
You generally pay a premium for pieces from certain vendors because of their reputation and presentation

 

[paulfg]

now this is the sort of post I come here to read,full of information and links to real solid facts

 

[sablebrush52]

And the hits keep coming. Two days ago I identified one of the auction pipes as being one of the eight meerschaums Barling showed during the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Here's the description from the the Exhibition materials:

"3. Silver-mounted meerschaum pipe. Engine-turned, cased, and engraved. Design: A pointer dog and bird."

And here are pictures of that pipe from the auction"



I love it when stuff like this comes together.

 

[orlandofurioso]

It may be a few weeks, or more, before all of this gets uploaded to the page, but here's a head's up for those of you who are Barling fans, Britwood fans, or those who have an interest in the history of pipes.

There will be two new additions. First will be the publication, with Jon Guss' permission, of his monograph on Nathan Nichols. Nichols was Barling's US agent and distributor from roughly 1926 thru 1962, and is the namesake for the Nichols Numbers. Jon tells Nichols' story and also dispels years of supposition and misinformation about the Nichols Numbers, which is very welcome.

The second addition will be images of the rare and mostly unsmoked Barlings that were in the Laxey Ltd. Pipe Factory collection which was auctioned off last March. The bulk of these pipes were of late 19th and early 20th century manufacture. The pipes shed new light on the history B Barling & Sons. In particular, a previously unknown Barling's Make logo stamp indicates that the company may have begun completely in-house manufacturing of a portion of their pipes as early as 1887, almost a full decade earlier than currently thought.

Exciting news for Barling nerds, all twelve of you!

Thank you Jesse, much appreciated and look forward to it !
One of the twelve Barling nerds and by far not an expert.