The joys and dangers of Ebay pipes

[OC Richard]

Nice pipes. The tarnish on the slides suggest silver? or are they aged nickel? What were they using for drones and did they come with a chanter?

The mounts are EPNS which is "electro-plated Nickel Silver".

In plain English the mounts are solid Nickel Silver/German Silver/Cupro-Nickel (which was the most common metal for Highland pipes, buckles, cantles, dirk mounts, etc from c1840 through c1940) then Silver plated.

It was common for pipes in the old days, makers like R G Lawrie offered bagpipes in plain or engraved German Silver, silver plate, and Sterling Silver. Here's a c1905 R G Lawrie set in Ebony, Ivory, and engraved German Silver. It looks identical to silver & ivory Lawries of that period save for the lack of hallmarks on the mounts.



Kintail pipes were African Blackwood.

Unlike most makers, Kintail not only stamped their name but also the date on their pipes. Multiple Kintails I've heard from the 1980s have been extremely nice in tone, and I expect this set to be like that. The bass drone in particular should be rich and powerful.

Here's a silver & ivory set of Kintails from 1984, a superb-sounding set played by my Pipe Major



The chanter coming with the Ebay set looks rather more modern than the pipes themselves. We shall see!

As a bonus there's a polypenco Practice Chanter.

About current Ebay offerings, the bidding is going up on this Gillanders set, which started very low. Back in the 1980s a band-mate played silver & ivory Gillanders which were amazing in tone.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-McL...p2056016.l4276