Possible Egan of Dublin uilleann pipes, owned by Kulturen, a museum in the town of Lund, southern Sweden.
These pictures are preliminary, forgive the quality. All I have is a photo copy of a
black and white photo. However my excitement knows no bounds and I
want to hear the opinions of others. Hopefully these will be replaced by images of
superior quality later in the year, 1998.
At first I thought the chanter had been tied into the bag upside down by some misguided soul. But, no looking closer it seems as if the neck of the tiny bag is tied on to the wooden windcap, but somehow the chanter bell has been inserted into the windcap, as the tapered end must surely be the reed seat
The pictures below are closer views of the drones and regulators, the stock, chanter and bellows. Seems like the ivory mountings are missing from the chanter bell, and from above the C hole, which ought to have given clues as to how to assemble the chanter back then. In Sweden uilleann pipes are considered exotic nowadays, back then, these pipes must have been regarded as coming from another galaxy or Glasgee (no pun intended).
Prehaps the photographer had a go at assembling the chanter in order to document the pipes back in 1947. Hmm, the chanter reed is probably none existent. Thoughts on the matter much appreciated. Things will be a lot clearer when I get to actually see, and hopefully handle, and measure the pipes.
These pipes were purchased in Glasgow in 1903 for 45 Swedish crowns and fifty ore (around three punt in todays currency) on behalf of Kulturen. The pictures are from a scanned photo copy of a photograph taken in 1947. The photo copy was kindly sent to me by Anna Landgren, a curator at Kulturen on the 28th of May, 1998. Kulturen's collection of music instruments are not on public display. The instruments are packed in boxes and deposited in various magasines at different addresses here in Lund. I have been told I may be able to see the pipes later in the autumn of this year. My first impression is that this set resembles Lord Edward Fitzgerald's Egan set inscribed 1768, at Dublin's National Museum. Presumed to be made by Dublin harpmaker, John Egan's, father. This pipemaker would be a contemporary of Timothy Kenna, also of Dublin. Prehaps they knew each other. Little seems to be known of this Egan of Dublin. I wonder how the pipes came to be in Glasgow.
Johnson's Uilleann Pipes Site