All seem to be authentic old ones, too.
http://gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/Catalogues/mi220713/page001.html
Hey Yuri, you still making whistles?
& all worthless without reeds 
The Chabrette & original Bechonnet conremuses are very interesting. Both zampogne are nothing out of the ordinary at all. Still, its quite an impressive buttload of pipes. Wonder whose??? 
Not really. What I do is double medieval pipes, both bag, and flue. Mostly, that is. I sort of gave up on whistles. I si9mply do not understand the musical requirements, as I don’t play them myself.
Wasn’t Sean Folsom specialising in just that, recreating reeds for bagpipes that had none? And I’m sure there are others that can do just that, too.
Yes if Sean got his hands on that lot he would have them all singing, and be using them on gigs! There are probably very few (if any) other people who would know how to reed all of those.
They all need new bags too, probably.
BTW does anybody remember an eccentric pipemaker named Richard Maheu? He made all of those Eastern European pipes, as well as various French pipes, Northumbrian smallpipes, Scottish Lowland pipes, and uilleann pipes. No matter what sort of pipes he made they all sort of looked the same, a “Danish Modern” look to them, very plain, “form follows function” as he told me. Every now and then I’ll come across an obvious Maheu set, for example there’s a museum that has a Maheu Cabrette in it, and I saw a Maheu “ancient Irish warpipe” for sale somewhere.
Who wrote the descriptions for these pipes?
auction house or the seller, i surmise.
Well it seems like it was written by someone who has a general knowledge of bagpipes, though not really an expert on the different varieties. The Italian pipe labeled as a Surdulina is rather curious. I don’t think it’s a surdulina. Knowing whether it has a thumb hole on the melody chanter would clear things up, but I suspects it’s just a small sized “a paro” pipe from either Southern Calabria or Messina, Sicily. What’s throwing me off is that it has a cylindrical bored drone, but I have seen that on occasion and it makes sense for a small sized pipe in terms of making the construction easier.
For that matter, the first of the “Romanian” sets is very unlikely to be Romanian. It’s indistinguishable from a type of Bulgarian gaida. I cannot guarantee that, but I never heard of this type being played in Romania.
And another thing. The “bamboo” that constantly crops up in the more “primitive” sets’ descriptions is not actually bamboo. It’s cane. There is no bamboo growing in those areas.
You’re right, Yuri - it is a Kaba Gaida from the Rhodope mountains of Bulgaria.
The second “Romanian” set is actually a Slavonian Gajde.
The pipes described under Lot 0012 do not look to be by Bechonnet. and are by ‘Pajot Fils’ (1863-1935) of Jenzat, Allier, Auvergne Region, France who made pipes and Hurdy Gurdys. If they stamped the bellows Pajot Fils then they may well be a recycled bellows originally by Bechonnet (1820-1900)
If you find yourself in central France then the house at Jenzat is worth a visit especially if you can get to Montlucon as well and see the collection of pipes (mostly French) and Gurdys on display but you will need to get permission in advance as most is locked away and only a small proportion is on view to the public.
the bagpipe that the site called sordellina is a zampogna that i never saw.
It isn’t a surdulina, because a surdulina has cylindrical single-reeded chanters of the same lenght and with the same number of holes, but not even a zampogna zoppa…
I think it’s an a-paro from Sicily or maybe southern Calabria.
Wow, did someone burgle Alan Jones recently? 
No Kevin, nobody robbed Alan Jones. I recognized the collection right away as belonging to Joe Moyer (RIP), his Widow Dominique, was selling them through that Auction House. The Pastoral Pipe went for 10,400 Pounds and it’s going to be part of the collection of Instruments at the University of Edinburgh Museum. A consortium of Pipers from the Lowland Pipers Society made that happen. I actually registered for this Auction myself, but I didn’t bid on anything as the Auctioneer stayed within the quoted Price Range for each Pipe. After the Bidding started the Prices went really High Up There. Even a Tunisian Mizwid Chanter (no Bag) went for 200 Pounds. Someone, or a Combination, of Deep-Pocket Individuals bought everything up. It started really early for me here in the Mid-West and I had an Audio Hook-Up on my Computer. There were several lots of Electric Guitars and other stuff to work through before the Bagpipes came on. That “Romanian Pipe” was actually a Veliki Gajde from Voivodina / North Serbia and I remember Joe playing it for me at Tony Bingham’s Antique Music Shoppe on Great Poland Street in Central London, in December 1972. Joe was an Oboe Player from Berkeley, Ca. and had a small Music Store in Sonora, California, where his parents had a Summer Vacation Home. He met Robert Donovan Thomas (Bob Thomas) at the Renaissance Faire in 1967, & got “Bit” by the Bagpipe Bug. Joe worked as a Instrument Repairman for a number of Music Stores later, after his shop in Sonora failed, and he moved to England & worked for Bingham, where I saw Him again, after 5 years. The very last time I saw Joe Moyer was at the American Musical Instrument Society annual Convention at Clairmont College near Los Angeles, back in May 1998. At that time, Joe had his own shop again just a few doors up the street from McCabe’s Guitar Shop on Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica. I had heard He moved Back to Brussels, Belgium, some time in the early 2000s. I was sorry to hear that he had passed away about 2 Years ago & I only got that news recently.