I had seen an unmarked / unidentified set for sale and was curious if this looks familiar to anyone. Of middle eastern origin?
I don’t see any usual ‘Marks of the Beast’. FWIW I say not Paki.
Bob
Interesting looking set,the craftsmanship looks good . If you could get to hear it play and the price was right it would be world pursuing,IMHO .
RORY
Details do bring Dave Boisvert to mind, but I can’t recall if he ever made “H”-style bass drone ends. Unfortunately examples for close comparison are hard to come by on the web, Dave’s website is down, and while he’s a member here, he doesn’t log in much at all. He has a Facebook account, though, and contacting him that way could possibly shed light as to whether it’s one of his sets.
My money is on Alan Ginsberg.
To me its looks a little like a Kirk Lynch set and the worrying thing is, didn’t some Asian pipemakers copy some of Kirk’s work.
RORY
Have y’all ever seen the asian makers do an H-bar on the drone?
I’m not so convinced of that. I don’t know a lot about Lynch’s style(s), but per a web search it appears that Lynch favors a more decorative evidence of the turner’s art: spare combing, bulbous termini, that sort of thing. Instead, the set in question has clean, almost spartan lines and uniformly smooth wood surfaces for the most part, any eye candy being in the overall shaping of the wood bits, especially on the drones: simple cylinders, spindle shapes and tapers that meet up cleanly with the metalwork; any areas proud of the ferrules and tubing are slight, or added using other materials. That, and an eye for the beauty of the wood itself, which relies on sheen rather than ornate turnery for its impact. The striking grain of the drone stock is also something I’d expect out of Boisvert. The simplicity’s deceptive, and tasteful in a way that might bring to mind Nordic furniture.
Boisvert may not be the only maker who favors that style, but it’s what he does, and his sets are very easy on the eyes. I remember a special set he made for Joseph E. Smith: I spent a long time admiring it just for its subdued yet highly pleasing visual impact. You could tell that everything he did in terms of outward design was calculated to employ simplicity for a sharp, streamlined look, and IMO he nailed it. You could call the effect “modern”, in a way.
The set in question has those elements, but of course it could be by another maker; there are one or two things about it that I’d be less likely to expect out of Boisvert, but if it is by him, then maybe it’s an earlier piece.
Anyway, I’m not particularly invested in my assertion that it might be Boisvert, but it is worth looking into. TBH, I don’t know if he’s ever marked or signed his pieces.
I just contacted Dave Boisvert on Facebook and he says that it is not one of his earlier sets.
Fantastic! I’ll shut up now. 
Looks like it could be Michael Dow
Wouldn’t a Michael Dow set likely have Michael Dow bellows?
Not if it was in disguise. 
Guess I can’t shut up. 
Was just looking over the eBay offering, and a question comes up: What range of prices might one have encountered for a ready-to-go half set in a shop in 1990s Ireland?
Hmm… in the mid-1990s, An Píobaire ran ads for a seller in County Down known as Clan Uladh. They listed half sets for £550. “At Last - Top Quality Pipes at Realistic Prices.”
But some comments here at C&F in 2004 indicate that pipes made in Pakistan were stamped with the Clan Uladh name to give the impression of authenticity.
Not necessarily. But the way the brass connector on the bellows is screwed in is somewhat familiar of Dow’s other bellows. An image of the front would help to clarify.
I would say the rest of the set is very much in the style of Michael Dow. Check out the mount on the chanter top and compare.
Dow is more well known for making Smallpipes, and there is a striking similarity in the turning, materials and decorative lines found in here:
Its also kinda hard to see with the pixelisation but the brass decoration on the drone switch looks like it could be the same too.
Hope this helps.
An early de Keyser possibly?
Decoration fairly similar to examples I have seen, similar end mounts on drones, was making in this timeframe, used ‘H’ drone ends, also sold via music shops occasionally
Edit: here’s a De Keyser half set from a sale in Ireland - ignore the puck and you will note some similarities
Well.. bidding has ended on the pipes and no one placed a bid. I’ve sent a few messages to the owner suggesting he check for a maker’s mark on the chanter and stock. I will let y’all know if he ever responds.
How much was the reserve price ?
RORY
Was this on ebay or a different auction site? I search regularly, and this listing never came come up.