Need help with Barling Meerschaum

[hoppes]

Bought this from an English gentleman. It was described as an "Old Barling". I know very little about Barling pipes and nothing about meerschaums.This is my first one. It looked to me though like a Barling from the 80's. It has the black stained edge, the Barling name and crossed Barling on the stem. The silver-like band has no assay or silver marks which would indicate 1. it was not made for the English market or: 2. The band is not silver. The use of the singular Barling would indicate a late pipe after the Barling family was long gone. Now comes the fly in the ointment: The band is marked with the initials E.B and W.B. If the family no longer was involved why the Barling initials? Need the experts!! Thanks for looking, Hoppes

 

[jpmcwjr]

That is special. Could the band be gold?
The Bard will no doubt see this and have some guidance. Other than loving Barlings I can't add any info.

 

[sablebrush52]

It's a Barling made by Laxey Pipes Ltd. for Barling in the 1980's. The band is probably silver plated nickel. When Imperial inherited the Barling operation from Finlay in 1963 they also got the rights to the E.B. W.B. makers mark. This then went to the successor company that set up operations on the Isle of Man and contracted with Laxey Pipes to make their meerschaums.

 

[hoppes]

Sable: Thanks for the information. I take it that this is African meerschaum from the Amboseli region. At least it's a Barling and hopefully will smoke well when cleaned up. Only paid $13 for it so that's pretty inexpensive for a meerschaum Barling. Hoppes

 

[bentbob]

I had a bent Barling meer which i bought new in the late 1980's. Similar in style to the one above (but bent of course) and it smoked superbly.
Like a fool, I gave up smoking a pipe for period of time and threw it away.