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There are four sets of union/uilleann pipes, three sets of Northumbrian pipes, and one set of Scottish small pipes in G&H's music instruments auction on the 13th of September:

Crowley set
Lot 1887:
https://bid.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/m/lo ... 3Fpage%3D6

Lot 1886:
https://bid.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/m/lo ... 3Fpage%3D6

Lot 1885:
M. Dunn
https://bid.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/m/lo ... 3Fpage%3D6

Lot 1884:
Robert Reid
https://bid.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/m/lo ... 3Fpage%3D6

Unfinished double chanters
Lot 1888
https://bid.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/m/lo ... 3Fpage%3D6


Lot 1889
R. L. O'Mealy chanter, unnamed chanter body and tenor regulator
https://bid.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/m/lo ... 3Fpage%3D6

The auction is mentioned in the latest Piobaire. It's the Lance Robson collection. They also mention a Crowley set.

The auction is mentioned in the latest Piobaire. It's the Lance Robson collection. They also mention a Crowley set. Mr. Gumby

Ah, G&H mention that LR has perhaps mixed up the pairing of bellows with pipes. I thought LR could have been Leo Rowsome. I missed An Piobaire's mention of Lance Robson. The Crowley set looks very decorative, perhaps a special order.

The boxwood Robert Reid set looks nice, but I wouldn't want the bendy M. Dunn double chanter boxwood set

Steampacket wrote:The Crowley set looks very decorative, perhaps a special order.

Perhaps a Kennedy rather than a Crowley?

The Reid set is gorgeous.

I'd love to have a vintage set of pipes but CITES makes importing even minor amounts of ivory virtually impossible.

Looks like the Reid is the star of the show. I'd love to get my hands on that one. Check out the Ghost E key on the bottom of the chanter–very cool. Just fantastic craftsmanship.

The Crowley too, gotta be the most ornate Crowley out there? And in great condition too. Made in Rosewood, which would be atypical for a Crowley set. A great find! Possibly the most complete Crowley?

Pity about the banana Dunn, seriously ugly. I've tried to play some banana chanters before and they just add a level of unnecessary frustration. Also looks like the unknown ebony set has been tampered with. File marks on the chanter and scalloped tone holes. What a waste.

Looks like the Reid is the star of the show. I'd love to get my hands on that one. Check out the Ghost E key on the bottom of the chanter–very cool. Just fantastic craftsmanship.

They were not really sought after at one time. There was one advertised in a Dublin paper for months during the early nineties, at what would be around 700/750-ish Euro now. Several people had a look but didn't think it useful, a friend tried to get me to buy it but while it was a beautiful little thing I reckoned I already had a set of pipes that served me well and didn't need another thing to worry about. So he eventually bought it.

Another one was offered to Tommy Kearney, around the same time. He didn't fancy it and when asked what price the owner should look for he gave them £300 as a guide price.

I know of at least one other one knocking around somewhere in Ireland.

I think I have some photos from that time of those two sets being compared by their new owners . I used to have (and probably still do) a postcard with a pic of another one, from the Morpeth museum, beautifully inlaid bellows with it.

The craftmanship on them is beautiful, but they seem to want to play well above concert pitch.

Looks like international buyers need to be careful regarding export -

"As of 2 January 2017, new laws came into effect to control the import and export of all items made with rosewood. Any lots containing any amount of rosewood will therefore be subject to restrictions when exporting outside of the EU. It will be the buyer’s responsibility to make sure that the relevant paperwork is in place before shipping"

The craftmanship on them is beautiful, but they seem to want to play well above concert pitch.

Pity about the banana Dunn, seriously ugly. I've tried to play some banana chanters before and they just add a level of unnecessary frustration. Also looks like the unknown ebony set has been tampered with. File marks on the chanter and scalloped tone holes. What a waste.

One thing I’ve found having made a number of piping purchases at auctions is there can be a big difference between what’s desirable for a collector and what’s desirable for a musician. Sets that might be really cool or important from a collector’s point of view are not necessarily great from a player’s point of view, for a variety of reasons seen in some of these sets (pitch, condition, damage, tampering, ivory, etc). Something to keep in mind if your goal is to purchase a functional instrument rather than a cool display piece.

My 1810 MacGregor set was purchased from a person described to me as ‘a collector of curios’. I’m sure he thought it was a really neat thing to have in his collection of weird and wonderful objects. I would agree it is a really neat set, and I’m very happy to have it, but I will have spent several years and significant additional funds to make it a playing musical instrument again, rather than a museum display.

Rick

Zeildritch wrote:Looks like international buyers need to be careful regarding export -

"As of 2 January 2017, new laws came into effect to control the import and export of all items made with rosewood. Any lots containing any amount of rosewood will therefore be subject to restrictions when exporting outside of the EU. It will be the buyer’s responsibility to make sure that the relevant paperwork is in place before shipping"

Further reading for overseas members -
https://www.antiquestradegazette.com/gu ... ivory-ban/

The thing I’ve found having made a number of piping purchases at auctions is there’s a big difference between the expectations of a collector and the expectations of a musician.

Both Reids I mentioned play, albeit one of them with a different chanter. But you wouldn't perhaps take them out to your local session.

These things are a bit subject to trends as well. By the mid nineties Ken McLeod started to get an interest in the little Kennas. They had been around, mainly seen as curiosities, relics of another day. Few people had much interest in them. One friend who had one said he had some people asking to buy it to make a lamp stand out of it.

I remember one backroom gathering with Ken, the little Kenna, Leo Rickard, Geoff Wooff, Mick O'Brien, Pat Mitchell, Wilbert Garvin, Damian Woodings and myself, all of us trying out and discussing the little set. At some point Mick Crehan walked in, slightly amused by the interest in the little set, finally confessing he had one like it at home somewhere and not much use for it. Still he wouldn't let it go and Ken did try.



Mick O'Brien trying the Kenna, supervised by Ken McLeod and Pat Mitchell, around 1997


But after Ken gave that one to Ronan and people hearing it played well, they suddenly came on the radar. Tommy and Padraic Keane doing lovely work on the other one Ken left will only intensify that I suppose. If only as a means to stand out and be different.

That was a lengthy was of saying there was a fairly quick transition from collectable to playing instrument for these.

I took a piping class taught by Pat Mitchell at Willie Week in 1998, and Pat had a little boxwood Kenna set with him that week. Pipemaker Nick Adams had made a new turquoise leather bag for the set! The set was in very good condition and sounded great. It played in today's D. Pat told me how he came to have the set.

PJ wrote:Perhaps a Kennedy rather than a Crowley?

Definitely Crowley - the birds-eye engravings on main stock and tenor & baritone regs are typical for Crowley, also the shape of the regulator keys and the very short bass reg end cap.
In fact, this set looks very similar to Paddy Keenan's Crowley set.

Looks like the Crowley set has been withdrawn?

Looks like the Crowley set has been withdrawn? jon1908

It's still up for auction: https://bid.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/m/lo ... num%3D1887

Anyone know what the grey stuff is around the edge of the Crowley bass puck?