John Peel Pipe Musings

[captainsousie]

Disclaimer: The following in no way reflects on the seller of the pipe or anyone who has done the extensive research that I am questioning. It is purely my own speculation for informational purposes only.
I'm probably way off base but I saw an auction tonight that got me to thinking. I would like to challenge the assertion that John Peel pipes were all made by B. Barling. The evidence is this, a pipe recently presented on eBay by the great repairman and carver Tim West seems to bear the stamping of a Comoy's product. See the picture below.

Now this pipe is stamped shape 27 in a font that was used primarily by Comoy's and GBD, if my research is correct. The number is consistent with a Comoy's saddle bit billiard designation. Now this is not a saddle bit but it has a few indications, the 2-tone shank is one, that the stem might be a replacement. That, as well as the shape, is evident in this picture.

Now It might be just me but this seems a bit too much of a coincidence so I was just wondering what you all think. I know...why the he** does it matter right? It doesn't. I just love research and finding things that may have been missed or misinterpreted. Now I admit there are many that are stamped B. Barling and many of those have shape codes not consistent with Barling. I also admit that I may be way off in left field here as one pipe does not make or break a well established assertion.
Now for a feedback request. Am I missing something obvious? Is the blast more consistent with Barling or something obvious like that? I'll shut up now but here is the link to the original auction.

 

[captainsousie]

Working on picture size now. Fixed.

 

[mso489]

Pipe makers have always been an independent lot. If there had been a more structured industry, perhaps

the stamping would have been standardized long ago, in the 1800's maybe, so every stem was clearly

stamped with manufacturer, year, city and country, and some shape/style designation. Wouldn't that be

a different world? Instead we have to track down this information, and often can't, even with house pipes

of the major U.S. tobacconist Tinder Box, though their Pipe Guru is quite helpful. Good luck with this pipe;

it certainly looks like you're on to something.

 

[timely]

I have also bought a pipe that has the following on it:

John Peel Myhre Oslo, Made In England, B.Barling Brand Pipe, #103

Bought from the same person, so I would be interested in what you or anyone else

can find out. As a side note, this is a really nice pipe.

Can't get the picture to come up.

 

[timely]

 

[timely]

Ok, got the pic of the bottom of the pipe up.

The rest of the writing is as follows:

John Peel next to Myhre over Oslo next to Made In England

next to 103 bottom side shank.

Also written by seller is:

B.Barling Brand Briar Pipe

Copied from page description on Ebay.

 

[misterlowercase]

This is an excellent topic captainsousie!
I don't think you're off base at all, and in fact, I agree with your conclusions.
It's a good public service announcement that you did take the effort to post about your deductions, because I've seen it, whenever they come up which is fairly rare, that indeed all John Peel pipes are assumed to be made by BB&S --- this may be due to a one-stop shop research method, because if one goes no further than Pipedia, one may think it's writ in stone so.
These pipes don't get mentioned much, but I've been curious about them ever since I first saw one. Finding any info on the web is a demanding task due to the ever-popular British dj John Peel who garners most of all the hits.
But I have discovered a few meager things, which I'll share here.
First, I was drawn to these pipes because of the nomenclature on the example I saw, I just really dug the stamping, the way it was worded -- it said "John Peel Special - A Portland Pipe - Made Wholly in England".
There was an actual company called Portland Pipe Co. and it was based in London, so it's self-evident that any John Peel pipe so stamped with the above was made by them.
Here's one of those, but the nomenclature is fairly worn:

john peel 834 Special pipe

... all of these I've seen that are sandblasted have all had excellent blastwork.
...Portland Pipe Co. pop up on this Australian document below, John Peel also pops up, but under Diploma, which I guess must have been an agent because they don't have a British address:

PIPE MANUFACTURERS AND AGENTS

:

...and, a couple of old adverts:

I've read that John Peel was a pipe shop in London as well, I cannot really verify it (I tried looking to no avail), but that'd certainly explain the case about different makers producing the pipes.
So, in the case of the pipe you've pointed out, which has no specific maker stamping, it's a good bit of detective work trying to figure it all out.
But, in other cases, it's plain as day, like BB&S will be so stamped if indeed they were the maker, I'd say any John Peel pipe without the BB&S can in no way be made by them, more than likely.
Here's one of the BB&S pipes, clearly stamped as such:

VINTAGE BB&S JOHN PEEL LARGE POT SHAPED PIPE #G6X1
Here's another odd example, marked Finlays (which was a popular tobacconist/newsagent chain owned by Imperial), but it's also stamped John Peel...

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-finlays-john-peel-london-made-briar
And so the mysteries deepen!

 

[timely]

I pulled out my old book " Who Made That Pipe ? ", by Herb Wilczak & Tom Colwell.

Under the name John Peel it has as maker or seller, Portland Pipe/ B. Barling.

Country marked as, England.

Interesting indeed.

 

[captainsousie]

Thanks for the responses and further info.
I'm not sure who made your Peel Timely. I could go way out and say that if it is a billiard it could be a Dunhill 103 but that's a stretch. I did find another Peel that was light and had excellent grain that matched Dunhill numbering but again, a stretch.
I did notice the connection with Portland and wish I could get more date info on to find if Peel had Portland stamped pipes before the close of the original Portland company and subsequent Barling takeover. It is also quite possible that Peel, a tobacconist I'm guessing, did what every other tobacconist did and got their house-brand pipes from a variety of companies. Barling was also known for stamping all pipes that they made for other companies clearly as Barlings.
A mystery indeed.

 

[timely]

This is the pipe in question.

Not that sure either, I just copied what the seller had it marked as being, and what my book had to say about it.

I think you may be right about it being named after a pipe shop.

I will keep digging but it seems that you have all done your homework,

thanks for helping out.

A mystery pipe is always fun.

Plus it is a nice smoker.