The joys and dangers of Ebay pipes

[OC Richard]

I just bought a vintage set of Lawries on Ebay.

I hope it will be in the "joy" category!

I'm currently playing an inter-war/pre-1953 Lawrie set that I love. It's got beautiful fat Robertson-like wood projecting mounts and a big bold tone but sadly the bushes are ivory.

In a month our band will be in Scotland, playing at Perth and The Worlds, and I've been trying to figure out what pipes I'm going to take on the trip.

So up pops a nearly identical-looking Lawrie set on Ebay but with Catalin bushes. I made an offer $350 under the Opening Bid price and it was accepted.

The pipes were purchased in Britain around 1955 by the seller's father, and hardly played since. I've messaged the seller to find out whether it was purchased new or used. If purchased new, it would have been in the Donald MacLean of Lewis and Captain Charles Smith (ex-Black Watch Pipe Major) period which began in 1953.

As a bonus, with the pipes is a lovely blackwood Sinclair pipe chanter and an equally lovely David Naill blackwood practice chanter.

It's not common to find a Lawrie of that vintage with all original parts and no missing ferrules.

EDIT: My "new" Lawries arrived! They must have been purchased new. They have 100% of the original factory varnish and there's no evidence of wear.

Here they are with the great-sounding set I've been playing.

The two sets are very close in tone and appearance. All the turnery and combing look identical, as if from the same hand, except for a few things I've spotted

1) the "new" set has wider Tenor drone Cord Guides, which crowds the Fountain slightly, leading the turner to use a narrower combing tool there.

2) the drones are slightly "waisted" on the "new" set, the extra slimness making that set a tad lighter on the shoulder

3) the wood on the "new" set is more brown.

EDIT: besides my two, there are two other Lawries I know of with those big wood mounts.

One was bought at an auction in the UK, it was in the original box "by appointment to the King" so pre-1953.It's fully combed and beaded but otherwise identical.

The other was just brought to my attention this week, an Ebony set probably from the interwar period, pretty much identical to my open-combed ivory-bush set.