B. Barling & Sons (by Nording) 4025 Apple Estate Briar Pipe, Danish Estates

Description

B. Barling and Sons was originally founded in 1812 by Benjamin Barling and began as a family business making silver-adorned meerschaum pipes. In the early 20th century, however, the Barling family began to produce what the brand is today most famous for – expertly made briar pipes. This Barling, however, was made by Nording.

As we document in our Barling Pipes Dating Guide (found on the main MBSD hub), after Imperial Tobacco Group took over the make, production of Barling pipes continued in its English factory for around 7 years, before Imperial outsourced production to other makes. In England, Charatan produced some Barling pipes, but some Barling pipes were instead made over in Denmark. The workshop that took charge of manufacturing these strange, Danish Barlings belonged to none other than Erik Nørding. Danish-made Barlings are fascinating to me, because Erik came up with a whole new line of shapes, some of which were more recognizably “Danish,” and others which were more subtly so. This shape I would consider to be the latter. It is a fairly traditional apple, but for slightly rounder, egg-like bowl and oval shank it also possesses. It’s much more in keeping with the early Danish designs of Emil Chonowitsch, Sven Knudsen, Gert Holbek, et al., rather than the ones that arrived in the late-1970s and 1980s onward.

The condition is good. There’s some rim darkening and minor handling marks.

 

Details:

Length: 5.3″ / 134.6mm

Bowl Width: 0.70 / 17.78mm

Bowl Depth: 1.4″ / 35.56mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 42g