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Talking of 'vintage rods' the main problem is often in the translation - in the US you say 'fly rod' and pretty well always mean 'dry fly rod' - 50 years ago or more in the UK you would say 'fly rod' and (apart from a very small percentage) mean 'fishing rod' - basically a general rod suitable for wet fly and occasionally a freelined worm or minnow, possibly even a fly-spinner. These rods were generally slower and softer actioned to suit the range of general fishing uses because so few people could get onto the very small amount of chalk stream dry fly fishing available but because they had fly rod reel seats they get into the secondary market as 'fly rods' ... there are exceptions as I know Ralph and others also know very well - many are specifically modelled for the US market and are very fine rods at very attractive prices. I would not hesitate to recommend the shorter Farlow's or Sharpes (and not because I have a Farlow's Midge for sale or because Ralph already mentioned them) or some of the faster Hardy rods (Marvels, Phantoms, etc.) and there are quite a few others but as Ralph said you really need to try before you buy or buy from someone who knows what they are telling you if you are looking at older rods.
After the time period of these slow rods came a period of bulk production for sale at a specific price point (especially post war) - most were simple and fairly straight tapers and are basic workmanlike rods that would compare to lower end US made blue collar rods, and as with H&I, Monty and low end Heddons there are some out there that do a fine and suprisingly good job.
I cannot give you a list as such because my taste is mostly in US made rods (apart from Tom Moran rods which are Garrison based tapers anyway) - as far as I know just about all of the recent and current british makers are using what will be familiar US based tapers so the more recent the rod the less likely there is for there to be an issue.
For dry fly use some of the older rods are a heavy abomination but they were not really made to be much else.
The parabolic influence is probably from locality and exposure to the mainly Ritz influenced rods by P&M and a degree of tax avoidence - import duties have always been an issue here and a lot of part built Pezon rods were finished here for sale as Sharpes and Farlows rods - not sure of the exact details but import duties vary between finished goods and components so bringing in components (say handled blanks) and finishing them off could save a very large amount of tax - also Sharpe's made impregnated blanks for a lot of familiar names and for rather a long time - so many of you may well be fishing with a UK rod and not even know it - Scott may even have one he likes after all