Hmmm…interesting, guess they started the Albert series sooner than I realized. Thanks for that information.
Show Off Your Barlings Here
- Thread starter sablebrush52
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No, my interpretation is that ss thought the Oppenheimer comment was towards his beautiful pipe with the silver band.
I didn't think Al was saying the pipe he posted was a The Albert model but maybe I missed something.
Yes my take is @ssjones was commenting on his pipe re hallmark.
Jesse was commenting on the calabash "the albert" re 1970's made
Jesse was commenting on the calabash "the albert" re 1970's made
What I appreciated was watching (actually reading) these two learned gentlemen, who have forgotten more about these old vintage pipes than I will ever know, discuss the matter and exchange information in a calm, educated manner without getting in an uproar.
THIS is how we should discuss things on this forum. On all forums, for that matter.
Refreshing...............
Here is one on its way to me. Pretty excited to get her.
Barling London England Vintage Smoking Pipe - Super 14, With Stamped Gold Ring | eBay
<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">Vintage 1920/30s Barling Super 14 pipe. Never used.</p> <br> <p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">Beautiful dark wood finish, with stamped gold ring.</p> <br> <p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">Measures...
www.ebay.com
Boy, that is a beauty for sure. Cool to get it with original box, too. Congratulations.Here is one on its way to me. Pretty excited to get her.
Barling London England Vintage Smoking Pipe - Super 14, With Stamped Gold Ring | eBay
<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">Vintage 1920/30s Barling Super 14 pipe. Never used.</p> <br> <p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">Beautiful dark wood finish, with stamped gold ring.</p> <br> <p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">Measures...www.ebay.com
Got this one from EBay. Needs a little cleaning. Is this a black meerschaum?
Yes it is. Made by Laxey Pipes Ltd. for Barling.
Oh, ok. Thanks for the info! I have a regular color meerschaum by Barling but didn't know they did them in the black African/Kiko style.
Those Kiko style meers started in the 1960's and continued on to about 2001. Laxey make meers for several companies besides Barling.
I know this post is a decade old, but had to chime in on the callabsh/dublin... I'd call it a bell Dublin"IF IT SAYS BARLING's, IT HAS TO BE GOOD!"
ITS NOW BEEN A WEEK AND NOTHING NEW POSTED ON THIS BARLINGS PAGE. SO I THOUGHT I WOULD BREAK THE ICE AND MAKE AN ATTEMP TO FLUSH OUT SOME OTHER BARLING COLLECTORS.
EARTH TO BARLING COLLECTORS, EARTH TO BARLING COLLECTORS, COME IN BARLING COLLECTORS!
ALL PIPES IN THE PHOTO ARE PRE TRANSITION AND HAS ITS ORIGINAL BARLING CROSSED LOGO STEM WITH THE REG"D NUMBER ON THE UNDERSIDES. WITH ONE EXCEPTION, "THE CALABASH STYLE IN THE REAR HAS A REPLACEMENT STEM" AND I STILL DONT KNOW WETHER TO CALL THAT PIPE A CALABASH OR A BENT DUBLIN. ITS VERY OLD WITH NO MODEL NUMBER.ONLY EXEL. GO FIGURE!
ENJOY!
It's more of a Dublin than a calabash. I have a 1908 Barling gourd calabash and a 1908 Barling briar calabash, which are shown in the first page or two of this thread.
Sablebrush, for a while now, I have been impressed both with your knowledge of and collection of "all things Barling."
May I be so bold as to ask how and when you began your love affair with Barling pipes??
I love the display case of Barlings.
I’ll meet it and raise with a display case of Barling Quaints from the 1930’s thru the 1950’s, plus a 1920’s FREAK, which was an antecedent to the Quaints.
Each pipe is a unique one of a kind design.
Attachments
It goes back to the 1990's. I had collected a variety of pipes, and owned about 16 or so Dunhills. I was reading through one of Hacker's books on pipes and read his bit about Barlings and was intrigued by them. Hacker's knowledge was not deep, his facts are way off, and the pictures were execrable at best, but something about this brand caught my interest.
Sometimes the Universe opens a door, and in this instance, shortly after I read Thacker's book, I paid a visit to my regular tobacconist, The Cigar Warehouse, in Sherman Oaks, California. At that time they had an excellent selection of new and estate pipes and pipe tobaccos. I would drop by from time to time, mostly to buy tobacco, shoot the shit with the proprietor, and see what they had in the cases of pipes. On this day they had a Barling Canadian in the case and I bought it, figuring I'd satisfy my curiosity.
It smoked wonderfully well for me. Blends that were good in my Dunhills were wonderful in this pipe, much deeper flavors. I started reading more about Barlings (not much info easily available in those days) and started buying another, and then another, when they would turn up. Each one smoked very well for me. Eventually all but a few Dunhills went into the drawer as they didn't please me like the Barlings did. To be fair, most of my Dunhills were 1970's not their best period, and the ones that I still smoke are '20's and '40's.
I found the Smoker Ltd site, with it's quaintly worded descriptions, and page after page of Barling pipes for sale. I also got to know the proprietor, Mel Feldman, a top tier Dunhill rep, who preferred Barlings for his own use, had owned an estimated 2,000 of them over the years, and who knew a great deal about them. I bought my first Quaint, a pre-war, from Mel, as well as several other Barling pipes over the next year or so. Over the years I became acquainted with other influential people in the pipe trade who shared their knowledge about Barling and it's manufacturing practices. No names revealed here to protect the guilty. They all felt that Barling's were just a cut above the rest of the pack.
My interest in Barlings eventually put me in contact with Tad Gage, the leading authority on the brand, who provided me with more information and who eventually introduced me to Jon Guss, who's forgotten more about the British pipe trade, than anyone on this forum, including moi, has ever learned. He sent me a paper he had written, in his fluent elegant language, about the Barling transition period.
I responded by sending him a copy of the circa 1912-14 Barling Catalog facsimile that I had published that year. BTW, inferior pirated copies of my work are available for sale on eBay.
Over the years I've bought another Barling here, another one there. until I have a small mountain of them. They represent a pinnacle of Britwood for me, and are the most British of British pipes in terms of their styling. Dunhills seem the most elegant overall when it comes to shaping.
It's certainly a personal kind of thing. Others prefer their Dunhills, BBBs, Charatans, etc. It just so happens that, overall, Barlings smoke better for me than any other Britwood that I've tried, with the exception of Comoy. Who knows, maybe I would have obsessed over Comoy if history had run a little differently.
Interesting that both Comoy and Barling ran their own harvesting and curing operations in Algeria while the rest of the trade bought their briar from brokers. Maybe that "from the ground to the sales counter" quality control had something to do with it.
And, Barling seems to be quite inventive, having designed the modern thin flat bit that they registered in 1930, and is the basis for much of the contemporary artisan made bit design, as well as numerous other registered bit designs, special purpose pipe designs, etc, etc.
Do I think Barlings smoke better than all other pipes? Of course not. Super pipes are found everywhere. It's more about technique than equipment. That said, I sure do like my Barlings. And to those, like me, for whom history is a part of the attraction of a pipe brand, consider this, Barling's pipe making business had been an ongoing concern almost a century before Dunhill opened its doors.
I read with fascination, your story of your path to Barlings. First, thank you for taking the time to go down this road in such detail.
I have read two of Mr. Hackers books and that was my first intro to the Barling brand (along with several others) and I agree with the lack of photo quality that the books show. You can't really tell anything about them by picture but he does admire the brand. That said, I still had not purchased any.
It wasn't until seeing some of your collection in the "Show us your pipes" section of this forum. I have acquired two and dearly love how they smoke.
I chuckled at your mention of the Dunhill rep smoking the Barlings for his own enjoyment. It would not do much for job security for that tidbit to get back to the mother ship, ha.
Anyway, thanks again for this story. I hope to add more to my humble collection down the road.
Wondered if you happened to have seen this EBay listing:
Pipe 1887 Barling Case Set. | eBay - https://www.ebay.com/itm/276556208152?_skw=comoy+pipe&itmmeta=01J953ZPWMQYQ511YH3PG0ZPR4&hash=item406408d818:g:CC8AAOSwxDdmmC5D&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKnY9UaBvMp4mcFtub4%2FuOCreThM6UONF1ACdEWeHqi0KfHOoZd5oSx%2FuCbnHXUqHJXPUG%2BvaLULjbak7Anv5FvVb5kzA9FfHdw2sZXHMP%2FaFi%2BNZKCMEE1dlOg2oIO%2F3YbI1ARUrqZoHoOUBhuQUC0nnlAHV6Hf3L2oN7UUJBjV3hGQ0EhPvrLDiAQQYejrwpc%2BECkVR30fi7xAlRy0ApaqFNAS8LQ%2Brq%2FNz132ZJ21eGrbbpIBwmzHgwqfBUAUzWjj%2BX1VHnIkVs96QVSVrEd7%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7Tu_qPJZA
Interesting set.
It's a lot quicker for us viewers to have an image inserted than a dozen lines of code.
But if you want only to put in a URL, use the embedding function: And this is the LINK!
But if you want only to put in a URL, use the embedding function: And this is the LINK!
He wasn't the only Dunhill dealer I've met that smoked Barlings. One of Dunhill's top dealers smoked Barlings, and if they had found out they would have had to live with it as his sales were among the biggest in the US.