This beautiful set of Lawries were sold to me as Hendersons. It comes from the Great War era when Lawries and Hendersons were quite similar in appearance, but especially in tone. Vintage Lawries and Hendersons have always had very similar tonal characteristics, but it is no surprise to me that the previous owner pegged these as Henderson.

It is one of the loveliest ivory sets we’ve had here in a while, both visually and tonally. The pipes are seamless and rich in quality, with a bass that cradles the whole bagpipe. The ivory patina is quite stunning and the pipes are a visual treat.

There were hairline surface cracks in one tenor top, the bass mid-joint and two of the stocks, but these have been sealed and are undetectable. Two of the ivory ferrules had open cracks. These have been sealed, though the difficulty of matching ivory patina means they are visible.

The ivory bushing from one one of the tenors was missing, but I had a perfect match in my box if miscellaneous bits, and you would be hard-pressed to detect the difference. One tenor ring has a small chip out of it: pretty standard with a set of this age.

This Lawrie set is really a classic from the golden age of pipemaking in Glasgow.