Smoking My 1882 Barling Magnum

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georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
Magnificent really is the word. +1 for photos of it with the stem off for a closer look at the fitting and silver work.
 

guylesss

Can't Leave
May 13, 2020
322
1,155
Brooklyn, NY
Thank you, George! Great photos and an amazing thread. Clearly, "Magnificent" was--albeit unintended-- tepid praise. And masterpiece, once-in-a-lifetime acquisition, and astonishing piece of pipe history rather closer the mark.

The thread is moreover of the greatest possible credit to the forum, its generosity of spirit and the deep wells of knowledge to be found here. (Not to mention the elusive British gift for bantering--so very welcome at this "interesting" time.)
 

jguss

Lifer
Jul 7, 2013
2,417
6,227
Almost certainly commissioned as a gift to a king or head of state, or some Industrial Age luminary.

Very possibly George. But I think it’s also possible it could have been commissioned as a display trophy meant for Frederick Wright’s main shop. Just a guess, really, but that could account for the little wear it suffered over the decades since it was made.
 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
Very possibly George. But I think it’s also possible it could have been commissioned as a display trophy meant for Frederick Wright’s main shop. Just a guess, really, but that could account for the little wear it suffered over the decades since it was made.

Says the same guy whose most cherished Barling sits inside a converted Vacutainer membrane-equipped specimen box under 24-7 armed guard---and has never been cleaned---because it can be "seen" in the background at the edge of a grainy newspaper photo of "Marylyn Monroe" teasingly "smoking" it on a bar stool at a "Hollywood party" in 1948.

Just a guess, really, but that "lipstick" could be accounted for by a colony of Monascus purpureus mold that bloomed over the decades since it was made.

You were drunk that night, Jon. Jesse got you. He got you good. You need to stop taking out third and fourth mortages on your house for stuff like that, OK?
 

jguss

Lifer
Jul 7, 2013
2,417
6,227
Says the same guy whose most cherished Barling sits inside a converted Vacutainer membrane-equipped specimen box under 24-7 armed guard---and has never been cleaned---because it can be "seen" in the background at the edge of a grainy newspaper photo of "Marylyn Monroe" teasingly "smoking" it on a bar stool at a "Hollywood party" in 1948.

Just a guess, really, but that "lipstick" could be accounted for by a colony of Monascus purpureus mold that bloomed over the decades since it was made.

You were drunk that night, Jon. Jesse got you. He got you good. You need to stop taking out third and fourth mortages on your house for stuff like that, OK?

Not everyone’s as suspicious as you George. I trust Jesse. He’s humane and wise; I know this because he told me so.

Wheresoever Jesse saith “go”, I go. Yea, unto the edge of insolvency. If Jesse says “Jon, please cash this post-dated third party check drawn on the Second National Bank of Lagos”, I do not hesitate, shilly-shally, vacillate or delay. If a third, fourth or fifth mortgage is needed I get one. Index funds are liquidated, IRAs are tapped, piggybanks broken into, relatives importuned, charitable giving cancelled, tuition payments postponed, kidneys harvested and sold on eBay.

As Jesse has made quite clear, in reading me a passage from the Book of Jesse, “Sooner will Hitler, Stalin and Mao sit at the banquet following the rapture than he who denies Jesse pecuniary consolation in his hour of need”.

Amen.
 

hauntedmyst

Lifer
Feb 1, 2010
4,006
20,750
Chicago
I've been asked a few times if I ever smoke any of my 19th century pipes. I figured that a picture is definitely worth a thousand words:

Jesse,

Most people's collections are just a personal collection. Some certainly unique but that's the extent and their worth is only what they are worth to us. Yours isn't. What I've seen of yours, many are truly museum pieces. Have you given any thought to what you will do with yours when it's time for the big smoking lounge in the sky? It would be nice to see them preserved but what museum would really appreciate them?
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,632
44,859
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
Jesse,

Most people's collections are just a personal collection. Some certainly unique but that's the extent and their worth is only what they are worth to us. Yours isn't. What I've seen of yours, many are truly museum pieces. Have you given any thought to what you will do with yours when it's time for the big smoking lounge in the sky? It would be nice to see them preserved but what museum would really appreciate them?
Well, it's a problem. I wouldn't say that my horde is all that wondrous, but I do have some very special pieces that I've picked up over the years. I have left specific instructions in my will regarding the pipes and the cellar, assuming I leave before they do.
 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
Jon,

If you need a boost to help come up with the Ivarsson, I can help in a middleman sort of way.
Jesse sold me an original cell from Snow White---one of only a handful left in the world from 1937---several years ago for only $5K, and I'd be happy to sell it to you now for $10K... You could then flip in on eBay for $20K, easy. Maybe 25. Definitely enough for a primo Ivarsson.

He absolutely, positively guarantees its authenticity. Plus says the quality of the artistry is by far the best of the surviving Snow White cells.

Deal?

Screen Shot 2020-07-21 at 12.31.15 AM.png
 

briarbuck

Lifer
Nov 24, 2015
2,287
5,492
Makes me want to shout Ricola...

N4la9i.gif
 

hauntedmyst

Lifer
Feb 1, 2010
4,006
20,750
Chicago
Well, it's a problem. I wouldn't say that my horde is all that wondrous, but I do have some very special pieces that I've picked up over the years. I have left specific instructions in my will regarding the pipes and the cellar, assuming I leave before they do.

Good to know the good ones will end up in good hands!
 
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