The joys and dangers of Ebay pipes

[OC Richard]

I'm not one of those guys who counts the number of teeth in the combing, that's beyond my knowledge.

I'm usually just looking at the obvious things, for example R G Lawrie did mounts in a unique (AFAIK) way.

A pipe maker/restorer told me these are done on a lathe: a sheet of German Silver/Cupro-Nickel/Nickel Silver is spun, and shaped with some sort of tool the turner holds in his hand.

The "bead" is integral to the mount, the same sheet of metal turned over itself.

People talk of the Lawrie "tapered mounts" and indeed they're usually tapered on later Lawries but keep in mind that each mount is spun by hand and each mount on the same set might have a slightly different taper than the rest.

Especially on early Lawries the sides of the mounts can be completely parallel, or nearly parallel.

Here's a set of Lawrie stocks where you can clearly see the typical Lawrie German Silver spun mounts, and see the varying degrees of taper.



On early Lawries these spun German Silver mounts sometimes are seen with this thistle pattern. A piper who is also a silversmith told me these aren't engraved, but rather the pattern is pressed into the sheet metal with a roller. Lawrie offered these in the early 20th century as a much cheaper alternative to engraved Sterling Silver mounts. (Modern pipers usually mistake these for engraved Sterling Silver mounts.)



Now about Robertson. As they say "Roberstons: Lots of wood. Lots of ivory. Lots of tone."

He used more ivory than any other maker before or since. The mounts are huge.

There are other Robertson traits, for one he often used Casein for mounts. Made of a milk protein, Casein unfortunately doesn't age well, and eventually degrades and literally falls apart. A pipe maker/restorer told me there's nothing that can be done other than slap some coating (lacquer? resin?) over it to seal it.

Another quirky mount style Robertson did was huge black plastic mounts (bakelite?).

And it wasn't just the mounts, the wood on Robertsons is chunkier than most makers.

On nearly all bagpipes the Bass top is larger than the Tenor tops, but Robertson would make the Tenor tops the larger Bass size, so that all three drone tops are the same, or nearly the same. (I've seen Robertsons which have had silver mounts added, the silver mounts having the standard thing of the Tenor tops being smaller than the Bass top, the wood on the Tenor tops crudely sticking out. If they had any sense the silversmith would make three Bass tops.)

Here's a Robertson Casein-mounted pipe so you can see how these various quirks come together to create a unique look.

Note the outsized Tenor tops and the massive mounts.

[OC Richard]

So with the above in mind, it's fairly obvious who some of the makers present in this Frankenpipe are:



Note with the Robertson Tenor bottom it's not just the huge bottom mount but also the deep narrow beads.

The Lawrie Bass midsection, and stocks, are obvious too.

Note that the three drone tops appear to match. Those wide flat cord guides remind me of Grainger & Campbell pipes. G&C pipes vary, but many have oddly small bass tops, wide flattish cord guides, chunky profiles, and stubby chunky projecting mounts.



And you can instantly tell that this stuff isn't all what the seller say it is

https://www.ebay.com/itm/11550899656...Bk9SR-am3ebdYA

[OC Richard]

Several Scottish-made sets on Ebay currently for well under a thousand dollars:

Frankenpipes around $460 many are afraid, but these a-la-carte pipes often sound good.

McCallum around $540

John Weston around $650

Hector Russell around $780 (a team of top makers worked for Hector Russell for the short period they sold pipes)

Alan Logan around $850

[OC Richard]

Here's a set on EbayUK which the seller says are 1960s Lawrie (Glasgow) but as you can see don't resemble Lawrie pipes in the least. I also doubted the date, as the pipes look more recent. All the Scottish makers AFAIK were using Catalin at that time.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255711803292

Notice the distinctive single bead occurring two places on the Tenor tops.



On another site a helpful piper informed us that these pipes are Glencoe (Ontario Canada).

https://www.thebagpipemuseum.com/the-makers/glencoe/

Matt Marshall served an apprenticeship with Lawrie in the 1960s then moved to Canada in the 1970s where he initially made Lawrie-style pipes but soon evolved his own distinct style. It's said he made around 500 sets before getting out of pipemaking by around 1980.

It's said that Glencoe pipes are stamped GLENCOE CANADA in the Bass cord guide.

I tried contacting the Ebay seller but I get a message saying that the seller can't be contacted, which is something I've never seen before in all my Ebay years.

[OC Richard]

Nice modern African blackwood pipes by David Booth for under $800US.

Even with the rather expensive post to the USA they're well under a thousand dollars.

I love the plain look, the wood projecting mounts. I'll take wood over plastic any day.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/11554722568...ndition=4%7C10

[OC Richard]

Naill pipes with super low starting bid, under $400.

The seller doesn't show the stamps on the drones, but they look like Naill to me.

I can't recall seeing a Naill with that swirly resin imitation ivory. I've seen older Naills with Catalin and newer ones with plain ivory-coloured plastic.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/22526202319...ndition=4%7C10

[imrichmond]

I can't recall seeing a Naill with that swirly resin imitation ivory. I've seen older Naills with Catalin and newer ones with plain ivory-coloured plastic.

I haven't seen Naill pipes with that type of imitation ivory either, but for about 20 years I did own a Naill long ABW practice chanter that had a ferrule and sole made of that material. The chanter was given to me by a colleague in 1982 or '83 and had been bought by him in the mid-1970s.