Working with vintage bagpipes is as much a hobby as a business for me. I enjoy the process of turning up old pipes and making sure they will be played for years to come. I think it is a good thing for piping. As such, I take great care in purchasing, examining and restoring old pipes.
My refurbisher is J. Dunbar Bagpipe Maker in St. Catharines, Ontario. Not only do they do masterful restorations, they have eagle eyes for examining 150-year-old wood and discovering replacement pieces and flaws that should be addressed before you play the pipes. If a set of pipes has a replacement or repaired piece, you will know about it before you buy.
You should know from the get-go that pretty much every bagpipe made before 1930 has required or will require repairs of some sort, especially if they are ebony. Ebony and cocuswood are superb woods from which to make bagpipes but they are less resilient than African blackwood. I suspect there is hardly an ebony bagpipe in the world made before 1920 that hasn’t experienced at least one crack.
Photos and descriptions of all instruments featured since October 2010
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Grainger & Campbell, Circa 1960, Full Ivory
SOLD – In 1946, the Grainger & Campbell pipemaking company appeared in Glasgow. In 1952 they moved into the premises of the recently closed Duncan MacRae pipemaking company at 1103 Argyle Street. The company’s heyday would occur when legendary pipers John MacFadyen and Donald MacLeod became associated with the company in the late 1950s and ’60s and the shop became a magnet for pipers from all over the world.
This set came to me in fine shape with no cracks, or damage. The original finish is still in good shape. The ivory has taken on an unusual but attractive aging patina that gives the set a lot of personality. The blowpipe is not original to the set, but the mount is a good colour match.Grainger and Campbell made a tonally strong instrument back in the day: full, vibrant and with good chanter blend. All in all, this is an affordable vintage instrument with excellent character and tone.
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Atherton Premier, 2022, Holly, Aluminum Alloy
SOLD – A spinoff of the famous Atherton MD Duncan MacDougall reproductions, the Premier has won more major prizes than any other Atherton model.
The Premer sound is big and rich, with a bass sound that fills the room and a steadiness virtually unequalled by any modern bagpipe maker.
The set is made in African blackwood with holly projecting mounts and caps and aluminum alloy ferrules. At some point a crack was fixed on one tenor drone top, the remnants of which are still visible. Aside from this, the set is in superb condition.
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David Glen, Circa 1900, Ebony, Ivory
SOLD -Here is a rare and lovely David Glen set in ebony with full ivory mounts. The set is in great condition, having undergone a refurb in 2013 by Charlie Kron, who fixed two drone cracks and made a new replica blowpipe stock using the original mount.
The almost invisible remnants of a stamp on the bass drone stock revealed David Glen’s mark, so faint that the previous owner had to use a microscope to determine if there was and “& Sons” after “David Glen.” There wasn’t, confirming the set was made before 1912. I and my vintage colleagues believe the set was made within a few years of 1900. David Glen pipes can be difficult to date because David was so consistent in his manufacturing standards for long periods of time.
Each tuning chamber is fitted with a brass slide.
The set played as I would expect a David Glen set to play: not loud, but rich. Some people call the Glen sound “mellow,” a euphemism for “quiet.” To me “mellow” does not account for the richness of the Glen sound, especially in woods like ebony and cocus. The chanter blend is wonderful.The set comes with some history going back to the mid-1900s.
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Duncan MacDougall, Circa 1890s, Brazilian Kingwood, Silver, Ivory
SOLD – This lovely and most desirable bagpipe spent its life in New Zealand, where Duncan and Gavin MacDougall had a solid market in the years around 1900.
This Duncan MacDougall set was likely made in the 1890s. It appears to be Brazilian Kingwood, a musical hardwood similar to cocuswood and frequently used by makers at this time. Like cocuswood, it is more stable than ebony and less prone to cracking. The set is mounted in elephant ivory and plain silver.
The pipes were completely refurbished in 2023 when they were stripped, a couple of stock cracks invisible whipped, and then refinished. The silver slide on one of the tenor drones has some small dents in it, invisible from three feet away.The pipes played like a dream: full, seamless, steady and rich.
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Robertson, Circa 1950s, Imitation Ivory, Nickel
SOLD -This bagpipe came to me mounted in casein and nickel but with two mounts replaced with orange catalin and a couple of the nickel mounts missing. It was decided to replace all the projecting mounts with imitation ivory. All nickel ferrules were replaced as well.
Aside from this, the bagpipe was in good shape except the blowpipe was badly cracked. It has been replaced by a poly-lined blackwood replica. The pipes were stripped and refinished.
This set features tapered bores in the stocks, a feature of Robertson pipes during the late 1950s and 1960s, perhaps their greatest years.
The set played beautifully, like virtually any other Robertson pipe I have ever played – steady, full and vibrant.Here is a lovely and ivory-free vintage Robertson bagpipe that looks like new.
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Duncan MacRae, Circa 1909, Nickel, Ivory
SOLD – This MacRae bagpipe came to me with the famous MacRae hempless slides. Two of the slides were usable, but two were not and were not repairable, so we removed them all and replaced them with hemped slides.
The hempless slides had no patent information stamped on them – normally they did, after the patent was acquired – so this dates the pipes to around 1909, around the time the patent was secured, and shortly after Duncan MacRae went into business as a pipemaker.
There were several cracks in the instrument. All have been invisible whipped and will give no further problems. The bass mid-joint is sleeved with brass, for reasons unknown.
This set played like other MacRae sets I’ve played: very, very bold and steady with a great chanter blend and a seamless mix of bass and tenor.
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Henderson, Circa 1930s, Imitation Ivory, Nickel
SOLD -This Henderson set seems to be attracting no interest, though it is tonally one of the best sets on the site.
It would be a confusing bagpipe to come across because it was remounted at some point with non-replica mounts. After considerable study, the pipes were determined to have probably been made in the 1930s.
At some point the pipes were remounted by the David Naill company, who used their own projecting mount design. The ring caps were not touched, and are ivory. Hemp stops were added during the remount. Overall, the pipes are in excellent condition. All pieces appear to be original.
Like several other sets on the site right now, this set was full, classic Henderson: rich, steady and enveloping.
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R. G. Hardie, Silver and Ivory, Hallmarked 1954-65
SOLD – This is a gorgeous Hardie set with every single piece original, accounted for, and in superb condition. The pipes were made in Glasgow during Bob Hardie’s company’s prime years.
The raised silver work is unusual for a Hardie set and each piece is hallmarked 1964-65. The pipes were bought new in 1966 and have had two owners, one of whom never played them.
Bob Hardie used the best wood in the business. Like this set, tuning chambers need minimal touch-up for even tuning. The ivory is pristine, as is the original ivory mouthpiece bulb, silver sleeve, chanter and chanter sole — a rarity. I don’t believe the previous owner actually used the original blowstick.
The pipes played in classic Hardie fashion: not a booming Henderson sound, nor a mellow David Glen sound, but somewhere in the middle, very smooth, very steady, and easy to reed.
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Hardie-Hendersons, Circa 1973, Full Ivory
SOLD – This set came to me from the widow of an old piping acquaintance, for whom I’d agreed to sell the pipes. The piper in question played these as a set of Hendersons for much of his life, and indeed they do have a great tone. But the thought among me and my vintage colleagues is that this may be a ‘Hardie-Henderson’: made by the R. G. Hardie shop after they purchased the Henderson name when that company closed in 1973. This could be off base and the pipe could be a bona fide Henderson set from the 1950s or 1960s.
The set was in excellent shape on acquisition. A crack in the blowpipe required invisible whipping. The pipes have been stripped and refinished, tuning chambers evened out, all newly hemped and tested.
The pipes played in lovely fashion: tuned in the classic Henderson tradition (tenors high, bass low), and exhibited a full and rich tone that locked in nicely.
The price takes into account the very reasonable price paid to acquire the set, plus the slight uncertainty in identification.
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Duncan MacDougall, Circa 1890s, Cocuswood, Ivory
SOLD – This Duncan MacDougall set came to me needing no work at all, but for a cracked blowstick. Since these photos were taken that blowstick has been replaced by a poly-lined replica with the original mount.
There were no cracks and the finish has been left entirely alone.
The set played beautifully, as you might expect. MacDougalls are quite magical with their seamless, steady drone sound. The bass harmonics seem to come in surround-sound.
As MacDougalls go, it’s hard to do better than this cocuswood beauty!
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Henderson, Circa 1935, Full Ivory, Plain Silver Slides
SOLD – This Henderson set came to me with fantastic tone despite a couple of compromises. The bass mid-joint and blowpipe were Starck. The stocks were east Indian, but the ferrules were ivory. New stocks and a new bass piece were made by Dunbar Bagpipes (whose expertise is in Henderson bagpipes). Existing mounts were used, though an imitation ivory ferrule is on the new, poly-lined blackwood blowpipe stock. The Starck projecting mount was moved to the bass piece. A poly-lined blackwood blowpipe was made using the Starck projecting mount.
The bagpipe was stripped, refinished and hemped. There were no cracks.
A previous owner added a touch of elegance with plain silver slides hallmarked 1994.
The set played beautifully from the moment I tuned them. Full, rich, seamless and steady, they are as good as any Henderson set I’ve had on the site.
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Lawries, Circa 1910, Hallmarked Silver and Ivory
SOLD – This spectacular set has a story behind it. The first recorded owner was George Duncan, an Edinburgh man who emigrated to the Detroit area in the 1930s and was almost certainly the top player on the continent through the 30s and 40s. The pipes were originally full ivory. In 1932, George took them to the Peter Henderson shop in Glasgow and had silver put on them. The silver maker’s mark is PH (for Peter Henderson) and the date is 1931-32. When George passed in 1965 the pipes went to Gord Tuck, a renown Ontario player and pipe major who took many professional prizes in the 1960s in Ontario and who ran the St. Thomas Police grade 1 band for many years.
Whether from the very first or whether it was the addition of the silver, but Gord always knew the pipes as Hendersons, and of course the silver maker’s mark would confirm that.
But the pipes aren’t Hendersons. They are Lawries. The elongated, sweeping fountain below the bell and the slightly smaller, less squarish bells confirm this. What else might make one think these were Hendersons? The tone. Through the first two or so decades of the 1900s, Lawrie and Henderson were making almost identical bagpipes, both tonally and visually. They can easily be mistaken for one another.
So the fact that these are Lawries rather than the expected Hendersons is merely a detail of nomenclature. The tone of the pipes is immaculate: full, seamless and rich with harmonics. Earlier in the month Matt MacIsaac and I did a pipetunes video on this set as it is both an iconic set and an excellent example of how pipes can be misidentified.
All parts are original except the blowstick, which appears to be a replacement, including the mount, which is a decent match. The mouthpiece bulb is new, and the engraved silver sleeve is not a match for the set. The silver on the set is gorgeous.
