Barling Ye Olde Wood Special 52279 T.V.F. Spigot Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

Description

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 particular Barling is an very handsome apple shape, complete with an especially traditional sterling silver spigot mount. Along with the shank it is affixed to, the spigot and tenon are far narrower than those found on more modern pipes, evoking the kind of silver mounts that were more common on early-20th century pipes. This Barling is post-transition, so it belongs to a later period in history than the pipes mentioned, but it nonetheless has a particular old-world elegance and charm to it that I’m quite fond of. This is not even to mention how nice the straight grain patterns around the pipe’s bowl are. In fact, this Barling has sat on my desk for a number of weeks while I decided whether I should simply keep it. But, if I did that with every pipe I liked that came through here, MBSD would not last long as a business!

The condition is very good. There’s a little inner rim darkening, and some finish fading on that rim, but I wouldn’t say this detracts much from how generally appealing the pipe looks.

 

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.80 / 20.32mm

Bowl Depth: 1.48″ / 37.59mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g