Barling dating question

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puffermark

Might Stick Around
Feb 24, 2015
99
45
36
www.viagrasansordonnancefr.com
Greetings, from Cape Town, South Africa.
I picked up this Barling’s make recently. No visible fills, and it cleaned up nicely with little effort. It had some minor damage on the outer rim and a small stem/shank gap issue which I managed to largely sort out by taking shade off the end of the tenon and beveling the edge a bit. The stem had no visible oxidation and needed only a very light polish. An exceptional rendering of the classic billiard in my view and smokes like a champ.
My question is about dating. Jesse Silver’s Barling page on Pipedia (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Barling) would seem to indicate that it is an early transition (1960-1962) pipe as it has the rounded possessive BARLING’S (over) MAKE stamp with a 4 digit shape number 4172, introduced when the company was bought over by Finlay. It also has the crossed BARLING stem logo. Mr Silver, in fact proposes that one should refer to Family Era (i.e. when the Barlings were present) and post family, or Corporate Era Barlings (i.e. after they left). Accordingly this would then be a Family Era pipe, made while the Barlings were still managing the factory.
Apparently when they left, the rounded BARLING’S MAKE stamp was discontinued in favour of a scripted non-possessive Barling stamp. (no apostrophe ‘s’). The MADE IN ENGLAND COM stamp was also changed to MADE IN LONDON ENGLAND. It is widely claimed that a general fall-off of quality ensued, especially after it fell wholly into the hands of Imperial Tobacco in 1967, but this too is disputed.
So far, so good. But when the pipe reached me there was no COM stamp at all. It does say LONDON 1812 and MADE IN ENGLAND on what appears to be the original sock (I must assume it’s original since Barlings are very rare in these parts), but again it has Barling printed in script on it.
So this leads me to have some doubts and questions.
Is it perhaps a later piece, made when production was outsourced to Denmark? Could it be an Early Transition / Family Era pipe that was sold to a distributor without COM stamp, with the intention that the distributor add their own stamp, and for whatever reason this was not done?
Any Barling experts care to weigh in on this one.









Thanks in advance.

 

dmcmtk

Lifer
Aug 23, 2013
3,672
1,685
Your dating of the pipe is I believe correct, 1962. Take a close look at the underside of the stem, many of these pipes that I have seen have the script Barling's Design mark.

 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,249
108,351
If Jesse sees this thread, he will likely offer his expertise. He's one of our regulars, "sablebrush52".

 

pagan

Lifer
May 6, 2016
5,963
28
West Texas
Could it be an Early Transition / Family Era pipe that was sold to a distributor without COM stamp, with the intention that the distributor add their own stamp, and for whatever reason this was not done?
Quite possible, you did a lot of resurch and I believe your dating is good

 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,625
44,836
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
The pipe was made sometime between April and November of 1962. These pipes appear in the 150th Anniversary Catalog with was issued around June of 1962. I think of them as Family era pipes. Some disagree.
In November of 1962 Barling issued a new catalog, the so-called dealer's catalog, wherein the new script "Barling"logo and new model lines were first introduced.
I'm not sure what a "MADE IN ENGLAND COM" stem stamp is. I've never seen one. I have seen "MADE IN ENGLAND" with and without a period. One constant with Barling is the inconsistency of their stampings. As for the sock it's ALWAYS risky to assume that the sock is original to the pipe. It's rarely the case, any more than the Box (where there is one) is original.
In any event, it looks like you got a nice pipe in clean condition, so congratulations.

 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
The "COM" suffix was a special designation for pipes intended for Soviet export. During the Cold War era, all manner of trickery and deception was used to defeat COMmunism, and one such tactic was by sending explosive and toxic pipes behind the Iron Curtain. Rumor has it that a 7-day set was sent to Nakita Kruschchev, and the resulting poisoning-induced mental instability was the real reason he was pushed aside by the Party in 1964.
In short, I wouldn't smoke that pipe. Much too dangerous. Better to sell it to Jesse for a dollar (or some other trivial amount) so he can examine it in hand, and deal with it accordingly.
Jesse knows that Barlings aren't my specialty, but I'm sure he'll agree with my assessment of this situation. After all, public safety is everyone's #1 concern, right?
8)

 

puffermark

Might Stick Around
Feb 24, 2015
99
45
36
www.viagrasansordonnancefr.com
^^^^^ :lol: Too late, I'm Afraid.
COM: Country Of Manufacture.
Thanks so much, Jesse. Fantastic work on the Pipedia page. A great resource. It's great to be able to put such an accurate period to it, and have my speculation confirmed.
Thanks to all for the kind comments.

 
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