Any other engraved sets floating around out there?

Brian Lee · Post by **Brian Lee** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 12:25 pm

http://www.kirklynch.com/engr1.htm

Very likely the best example most of us have seen of this rare embellishment. Curious to know if any others either own or have seen interesting treatments such as this?

B~

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 1:25 pm

YUK there's bad taste and things far beyond that.

There's stuff like that going around, old sets as well as new. generally though people here buy pipes to play them, not to look like the queen of the fairies.

Antaine · Post by **Antaine** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 1:30 pm

before doing what i did (based on that lynch set) i did scout around to see if there were any other sets engraved...i was unable to find any others on the net, but i would be interested in seeing photos as well.

i know people love it when i draw knot patterns like that on letters before i mail them...

Phil Wardle · Post by **Phil Wardle** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 6:17 pm

Peter Laban wrote:YUK there's bad taste and things far beyond that.

There's stuff like that going around, old sets as well as new. generally though people here buy pipes to play them, not to look like the queen of the fairies.

I agree with Peter!

I'd limit any engraving to maybe having your name placed on the mainstock ferrule....as the Deagan has done....if nothing else it makes a stolen set of pipes a bit of a give away

jqpublick · Post by **jqpublick** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 7:30 pm

I dunno, I kinda like it. Not that I'd get anything like that myself.... too much money, and I'd like to be able to play the bloody things first. But the carvings themselves are pretty cool. I've done come knotwork on bone and antler and I can tell you it'd take a steadier hand than mine to pull some of that off. One slip on brass and you've have to incorporate randomness into the design, if you know what I mean. Besides, one man's garish peice of road trash is another's prime mantlepeice ornament.

Mark

Jim McGuire · Post by **Jim McGuire** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 7:52 pm

It's great when form and function work well.

Kevin L. Rietmann · Post by **Kevin L. Rietmann** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 12:01 am

Chushla Machree, Pogue Mahone!
There was an old set with shamrock shaped keys. Serve with green beer. Cor blimey! 'Ow 'bout a set o' smallpipes with the Watney's Red Barrel logo?
To be true to my roots - in Oregon - I should get a set with an engraved beaver on it...maybe a set made out of Douglas Fir?
Former Governor Tom McCall: "Welcome to Oregon. Visit, but don't stay."

Antaine · Post by **Antaine** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 9:17 am

the way i see it...the pipes (i'm assuming...everyone seems to speak highly of kirk lynch) most likely play well...which is the important part. if up had been around in the middle ages, and the Árd Rí owned a set, they most likely would have been decorated to look very much like that, and in a museum today would occupy the same niche for UP the the Briain Boroimhe Harp does for harps today (with all its intricate designs even finding its way onto the Irish currency)...

certain things are just tasteless or would effect playability (shamrocks for keys etc...how 1920s american...)...but a carved beaver scene in uber-realistic super fine 19th century scrimshaw style (like on some pocketwatch cases) on the plate that attaches the bass reg to the mainstock (or, given the style, the mainstock itself, but that would not be visible while the instrument was being played) might be done is such a way as to be distinctive but tasteful.

Kevin L. Rietmann · Post by **Kevin L. Rietmann** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 10:19 am

Uh...
The shamrock set was of Irish manfacture. Also two of Willie Rowsome's sets had outlines of shamrocks stamped out of the mainstock ferrule. There's a photo of one on the Uilleannobsession site.
Whatever floats your boat, to me these sorts of things are all cultural grotesqueries of a sort. Like Cheesehead hats or the Shriners, if you want to single out something American for a change. Ewww, tacky! Fences made out of whitewashed tires cut in half.

Brian Lee · Post by **Brian Lee** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 10:22 am

This guy spent something like ten years doing this though - there has to be some merit there huh? And you must admit the level of engraving is really amazing on that Lynch set. I was only curious to learn if there were more unique sets out there. It really doesn't concern me to get into if people like them or not. Just wondering what's out there...

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 10:28 am

You may find engraved sets but not likethatone, whatI meant was that older sets sometimes have the name of the owner engraved on a plate on the stock, a lot of Froment sets have that too by the way and nicely done.
I understand there was another chanter with the big Kenna set that is on D&C vol1, which had it's keys engraved as it was described to me 'with fecking hunting scenes'. Imentioned a heavily engraved set here before that tried to drive home the fact it was made by Egan though it apparently wasn't. By and large though less is often more.

Kevin L. Rietmann · Post by **Kevin L. Rietmann** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 10:35 am

Brian Lee wrote:This guy spent something like ten years doing this though - there has to be some merit there huh?

Interesting brand of aesthetics you've got there!

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 10:51 am

Kevin L. Rietmann wrote:To be true to my roots - in Oregon - I should get a set with an engraved beaver on it...

How 'bout regulator keys shaped like a beaver tail..maybe with that silhouette of a lady engraved on the keys, you know, the one you see on trucker's mud flaps out in Eastern Oregon?

Dionys · Post by **Dionys** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 11:19 am

Just a note.. 1920's American style was high art-deco. Hardly a poor sense of style. Shamrock art strikes me as more 1980's-current.

Dionys

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 11:40 am

So putting one of these on my bellows inlet would be in bad taste??