  Along with a brief analysis we present data obtained from BVRI and Ks images
of a sample of 19 galaxies (18 barred and 1 unbarred) which will be further
explored in a future paper. We measured the lengths and colors of the bars,
created color maps and estimated global color gradients. Applying a method
developed in a companion paper, we could distinguish for 7 galaxies in our
sample those whose bars have been recently formed from the ones with already
evolved bars. We estimated an average difference in the optical colors between
young and evolved bars that may be translated to an age difference of the order
of 10 Gyr, meaning that bars may be, at least in some cases, long standing
structures. Moreover, our results show that, on average, evolved bars are
longer than young bars. This seems to indicate that, during its evolution, a
bar grows longer by capturing stars from the disk, in agreement with recent
numerical and analytical results. Although the statistical significance of
these results is low, and further studies are needed to confirm them, we
discuss the implications from our results on the possibility of bars being a
recurrent phenomenon. We also present isophotal contours for all our images as
well as radial profiles of relevant photometric and geometric parameters.
