The owner of the pipes ,a Mr Gerry Fitzgibbon who lives in Limerick has said he will take 1200 euros for the lot as they are !!
RORY
good price
Has it yet been established who the maker is? I have half a mind to nab this set to study and maintain it (such as it is… but cleaned up a bit), until such time as I decide to donate it to a museum or NPU or whomever.
All I need to do now is stea… er, find 1,200 euros somewhere. 
Joe! Good to see you are ok!
(Florida really got a horrible storm yesterday…many lives lost, for those not reading the headlines).
t
Rory,
I’ve sent you a PM, but I’ve had no response…is the set still being offered?
Thanks,
Jeff
So the pipes probably COULD be restored to playing condition…It would probably just cost a lot of money to get the work done…In the end, if somebody did decide to restore them with the intent of playing them, I imagine that a new chanter would likely have to be made for the set. Looks intriguing…Could be a fun fixer-upper project (mind you, whoever butchered the set in the first place was probably thinking the same thing…).
It’s really hard to tell much from the existing photos (too small, for one thing).
The date Alain gave seems very early to me - my instinct says too early. That’s the very oldest the set could be anyway, and it could easily be considerably later. The chanter cap tied directly into the bag is interesting but inconclusive. I agree that W Rousome is a possibility…
Rory, what is the length of the chanter (from reed seat to end of chanter?)
The bass drone slide tenon looks wonky/cut. Wonder what’s up there… also the square-ish regulator key blocks are usually not a great sign.
regards
Bill
What strikes me are just the bellows of this set. They look fairly similar to these IMO:
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(supplied recently) Is there a story behind this?
Hans
Interesting - the bellows with the “John Egan” set has a plate clearly stamped “ROWSOME” - ok, no surprise the bellows is not original. I agree that this ROWSOME bellows looks an awful lot like the bellows in the Fitzgibbon set.
I believe the early Willie R. stuff had square key blocks too, but not the later stuff. Thus the “Rousome” comment…
Are you sure there are no makers’ marks on this set anywhere? I’d love to have a close look at it.
Bill
Weren’t NPU making a pipe museum?
Perhaps they will buy them.
It’s preferable to have unplayable pipes in display cases than playable ones.
Mukade
I have to agree with this sentiment.
Here are pictures that give further support to Bill´s Willie Rowsome - guess. They are tose of this Willie Rowsome - set with the Ginsberg chanter that was sold via ebay in 2004. You find the pics on Pat D´Arcy´s obsession sites:
http://www.uilleannobsession.com/diary_2004.html
Especially look at the basedrone´s loop-piece!
Which W Rowsome set on that page are you referring to? (There are several shown) - the Bflat or the C? Neither has a Ginsberg chanter…
Yep.Exactly this one. Here from underneath. Had a second read again. No Ginsberg chanter.
[/img]
That, and the ivory/metal/ivory regulator caps. When the Rousome Bb showed up on eBay I thought it was a budget line Harrington set perhaps, but Brad Angus id’d it as Rou/wsome. In fact that set’s not stamped anywhere, so calling it a Rou/wsome is pure conjecture, except that it matches up perfectly with the one Willie is shown with - and who says he built that thing anyway? Also the bass drone end piece looks like early Willie.
The ivory/metal/ivory regulator caps you see on Harrington and Kenna, but I’ve never seen an Egan or Coyne with them. Dunno about Reid, Colgan, etc. The keys and blocks on this set are just too crude for these guys, especially the keys. They look like levers for lifting manhole covers.
In fact there are many features that don´t look like Rowsome at all. But who was it?
I could well be interested in these. If the owner could PM me with a phone number I would love to have a chat.
Cheers
Charlie.
I had another look and I (beleive to) see more similiarities between the supposed to be Willie Rowsome Bb and a Maurice Coyne.
Coyne could make better stuff with a pole lathe. It’s really awful work in spots - the lines in the ferrules wobble all over the place. Plus it looks just like the set Willie is pictured with, like I said. Key shapes, blocks, mounts, the works. Also the shamrocks in the stock ferrule. Most likely just some crude early work of his. I believe there are some W. Rousome Bb chanters around, at least - Lewis Blevins told me he was hunting around for one to go with the set.
There’s a picture of John Wayland and family where he has a very simliar looking set as well. It’s on the cover of one of the Wheels of the World CDs.