The joys and dangers of Ebay pipes

[WalesLax]

Not necessarily a good or bad deal, but a beautiful set of engraved silver Naill's I wanted to share: https://www.ebay.com/itm/33474701957....c101124.m2109

[OC Richard]

Yes gorgeous Naills there!

Now here's a grab-your-popcorn set, silver & ivory Robertsons, currently under $900 but this will go into several thousands.

The set is within the USA so no ivory import issues for US buyers.

The mounts are obviously by Frederick Narborough (later Dalman & Narborough) however they made identical-looking mounts in solid nickel-silver and Sterling Silver and only the latter have date marks.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/25598671952...ndition=4%7C10

[OC Richard]

And speaking of D&N silver mounts, here's a Piob Mhor set.

It's also within USA borders though it's unclear whether the mounts are ivory or imitation.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/22542900855...ndition=4%7C10

I delved into the Piob Mhor history a couple years back, including contacting Michael Phee, their principal turner.

He said that in the mid-1970s Paul Blackburn and Ian MacGregor, the sons-in-law of owner John Ruthven Milne, began turning pipes for the Piob Mhor shop in Blairgowrie.

Ruthven and his wife Gwen were both pipers and kiltmakers, who moved from Australia to Blairgowrie and established Piob Mhor in 1974. They bought out sporranmaker Nicoll Brothers in 1983 and tailor Thomas Gordon & Sons in 1992.

In 1986 another son-in-law, Michael Phee, became the turner. He's said to have made around 550 sets before moving to Australia in 2008, at which time pipemaking at Piob Mhor ceased.

Michael said that Piob Mhor pipes were Henderson-based.

He also said the pipes are date stamped, 1291 means December 1991.

[OC Richard]

Henderson-stamped pipes, no bids, $850 opening.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/16595264857...ndition=4%7C10

They appear to have narrow beads on the Catalin drone ferrules.

Hendersons with wide beads on Catalin or ivory ferrules are said to be superior.

[OC Richard]

Evidently both the Robertson pipes and the Piob Mhor lack hallmarks, thus are nickel-silver/German silver/cupro-nickel mounts. They're still nice hand-chased Dalman & Narborough work, but this will impact the final prices.

Here's a Lawrie set currently under $300. I'm huge Lawrie fan and the sets I've had like this had super stability and tone.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/17562620002...ndition=4%7C10

[Jock Scot]

Evidently both the Robertson pipes and the Piob Mhor lack hallmarks, thus are nickel-silver/German silver/cupro-nickel mounts. They're still nice hand-chased Dalman & Narborough work, but this will impact the final prices.

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Not necessarily, they still could be silver, but without the hallmarks they cannot be legally sold as silver in the Uk and you are right, that does affect the price quite considerably.

[OC Richard]

Not necessarily, they still could be silver, but without the hallmarks they cannot be legally sold as silver in the Uk and you are right, that does affect the price quite considerably.

The thing is, the mounts on both sets of pipes are clearly the work of Dalman & Narborough, who have supplied their distinctive hand-chased mounts to pipemakers for many years.

D&N have long made all of their various hand-chased patterns both in solid nickel-silver and in Sterling Silver, looking quite identical except that they diligently and fully hallmark their Sterling Silver, and leave their nickel-silver mounts with no marks whatever.

I messaged both sellers and they say that the mounts have no marks.

In the old days various pipemakers made hallmarked engraved Sterling Silver mounts in-house, but as far as I know the chased mounts always came from D&N.

In any case here are D&N hand-chased Sterling Silver mounts in their "Runic" pattern with repousse bosses. These are identical to the Robertson set currently on Ebay, though the seller says his set's mounts are unmarked.



(The firm was originally Frederick Narborough FN maker's mark but in the 1960s became Dalman & Narborough D&N mark.)