Historic HIGHLAND BAGPIPES - Museum quality. One-of-a-kind. Unparalleled workmanship. Start Price USD 4,995.00 Current Price USD 4,995.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price USD 5,200.00 Reserve Price - Start Time Thursday, August 28, 2008 End Time Sunday, September 07, 2008 Location Bellingham, WA See more about 'Historic HIGHLAND BAGPIPES - Museum quality. ' Description This auction presents a once-in-a-lifetime chance to own a one-of-a-kind set of Great Highland Bagpipes, the likes of which few have ever seen.  I know that sounds like an exaggeration, but I assure you it is not.  I have listed these pipes a few times before and have always enjoyed the many e-mails I have received about them.  No buyers yet, which is obvious.  Lots of interest, and a few windbags full of gas who don't follow through in the way they say they will.  But I figured I'd re-list them one last time.  If they dont' sell, I may just keep them and pass them along to my kids.  I may even donate them to some worthy organization dedicated to preserving Highland Heritage.  But this is certainly the last time I will list these pipes for quite a while. This set of pipes represents the culmination of years of research, study, and design by a remarkable historian/highland scholar/blacksmith/soldier/weapons collector/piper named Marc Wood.  Marc would settle for nothing less than the best, so when he sought out to have these pipes made, he commissioned the gifted pipe maker Mark Cushing to do the job, for he knew that few, if any other pipe makers were equal to the task.I never had the honor to meet Marc Wood, for he died in 1984 at the young age of 29.  I have talked with Mark Cushing, who made the pipes, and Stephen Walker, who did the silver work, and to Marc Woods’s mother.  I can tell you that Marc Wood was passionate about the Scottish Highlands, its history, its weapons, and its music.  I have been told that at the National Infantry Museum at Ft. Benning, Georgia you can still find the Marc Wood Gallery, dedicated to his honor and memory.  To that fine Museum he bequeathed his exquisite and historically important collection of Scottish weaponry.  The plaque placed at the Wood Gallery at the Museum  said:Wood  GalleryIn memory ofLieutenant Marc WoodScholar - Collector - Soldier1954-1984Marc Wood was a giant of a man, standing over 6’ 3".  I addition to his interests in all things Scottish, he found time to tour with a production of a Broadway play, apprentice and teach blacksmithing, apprentice at pewter work, study ceramics, lecture by special request at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, collect Indian artifacts, participate in various black-powder shooting events, design a forge for a small College, and become a Fellow of the Society of Antiquarians of Scotland.  This, of course, in addition to his career in the United States Army.As his skills evolved as a piper and as his interest in Scottish history grew, it became clear to him exactly what he wanted in a set of pipes.  In fact, he was clear and precise as to every detail he wanted in these pipes.  His inspiration came from the ancient Common Stock pipes such as those as you can see in the famous painting of The Piper to the Laird of  Grant - by Richard Waitt, 1714.   If you are unfamiliar with this painting, you can see it at:  _http://www.clangrant-us.org/grant-piper2.htm_(http://www.clangrant -us.org/grant-piper2.htm)  (http://www.clangrant-us.org/grant-piper2.htm) Though the pipes in this famous painting have a common-stock for the tenor drones, as well as a bass drone.  But Marc had these made in such a manner as to emulate pipers at various times in piping  history, both before and after the addition of the bass drone to the Great  Highland Pipes.  So you can use these to accurately re-create the piping styles of many centuries of pipers by playing them with the bass drone or by "corking" the bass drone stock, tucking it inside the bag cover, and playing as a two tenor set.The wood portions are all hand crafted in Brazilian Rosewood (Dalbergia Nigra).  This is a close relative of African Blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon).  African Blackwood (also called Grenadilla) is relatively common rosewood.  Brazilian Rosewood is now, however, almost impossible to get and has become exceedingly rare.  Among musical instrument tone woods, it is the Crown Jewel.   Consider, if you will, that in the guitar world, you can buy a used MartinHD-28 for around $1700.  A Martin D-28 Golden Era, the exact same guitar but constructed out of Brazilian Rosewood instead of Indian Rosewood, will likely sell for $10,000.  The tone of Brazilian Rosewood is unparalleled, whether in a woodwind (like the bagpipe) or in a guitar.  If you consider African Blackwood to be the Cadillac of tonewoods for bagpipes, I would say that Brazilian Rosewood is the Rolls Royce (or perhaps the Bentley).But it is not enough just to say that these pipes are made of Brazilian Rosewood, for that is only part of the story.  The wood is also intricately carved in a series of Celtic knots and zoomorphic patterns.  Think of the designs in the Book of Kells, and you'll get an idea of what kind of carving I'm talking about.The projecting mounts, of course, are finely crafted from the finest rare (and legal, I might add) genuine pre-ban Ivory.  BECAUSE OF THE IVORY AND BRAZILIAN ROSEWOOD, I WILL UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHIP THESE OUTSIDE THE U.S.I also assure you that this sale fully complies with eBay's policies regarding sales of items containing Ivory, specifically:- I certify that I legally possess and am legally permitted to sell this item and that the ivory is legal for sale within the U.S.,- I am be a registered member of the eBay U.S. site,- I will only offer the item for sale to buyers in the U.S., and- I will only offer domestic shipping from a location within the U.S.The silver work is done by noted silversmith Stephen Walker, who is in my opinion the absolute finest silver craftsman anywhere.  You should really look through his website, which is at:_http://www.walkermetalsmiths.com/_ (http://www.walkermetalsmiths.com/) I'm told this was the first set of bagpipes to which Walker contributed his exceptional talent , and the Solid sterling mounts are larger and more ornate than the typical mounts of today, and each is entirely hand-done.  And in addition to the chased and engraved silver, there are also over 200 individual hand-made solid sterling silver nail heads placed throughout the pipes for an extra bit of ornamentation.And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that which is perhaps the most stunning feature of all---large silver fitting for a huge Cairngorm, mounted at the junction of the two tenor drones.  I had the stone appraised several years ago, and its value alone exceeded $300. Though the appearance of these pipes is stunning, the tone and the workmanship are absolutely breathtaking.  You owe yourself a visit to the website of the maker, Mark Cushing.  _http://cushingbagpipe.com/_ (http://cushingbagpipe.com/)      I own several of his products, and if there is a Stradivari in the World of bagpipes, I think it is he.  These pipes sing like no others I have ever heard.  I often remove the bass drone, tuck the bass stock into the bag cover so it is out of sight, and play these pipes with just the two tenors.  I have never heard two drones more perfectly matched.   Perhaps the common Stock contributes to this, but these drones get locked-in so well that they sound absolutely as one.  And the bass drone is superb as well.  Add the chanter, and they are remarkable.  I have many other=2 0chanters, mind you --Sinclair’s, Nails, Shepherds, an even a supply of vintage Henderson’s and Lawrie’s, but I make it a point to play these pipes only with the original Cushing chanter.  To me, the tone is unmatched by any other.   They play at modern pitch, of Course.I expect that you may be curious as to my frame of reference.  I have played music professionally and semi-professionally since 1969 - guitar, bass, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, Irish and Scottish pipes, saxophone, clarinet, flute, and a few others, and, of course, at varying levels of proficiency.  I am primarily a woodwind player, and as a piper, I have many years of experience playing weddings, funerals, veteran’s ceremonies, parties, and the like, and served as pipe major of my local band for 6 years.  I am not and never will be a competition piper because I don't like to compete musically, I like to perform for my own enjoyment and the enjoyment of others and, every now and then, to get paid.  I also served as the official piper for the Clan Gunn of North America for 14 years.  As pertains to my knowledge of and experience with pipes, I have owned dozens of sets of pipes,--Hardies, Naills, Shepherds, Dunbars, Kintails, Glens, Gibsons, several sets of vintage Hendersons and Lawries, and probably others I have forgotten.  My main performance  pipes are currently a set of vintage 1880's McDougals, though I also  perform occasionall y on my  old silver & ivory Lawrie’s , my 1900 Hendersons, or any one of a  number of other vintage pipes I still own.  But none of them match the tone I get from these custom-made pipes.Why, then, would I sell them?  Well, to be candid, I am not playing them as much as I would like.  Marc Wood donated his weaponry collection to the Museum at Fort Benning, but his wish was for these pipes to be played and appreciated.  I bought these pipes around 10 years ago, after searching them for quite some time.  I had heard of these pipes long ago and when I finally located Marc Wood’s mother, I spoke to her at length and asked whether she would be willing to sell them to me. After discussing her son and his passion for these pipes, she indeed agreed to sell them to me and I promised that I would play them as much as they deserve to be played or I would put them in the hands of someone who would.  Neither she nor I wanted to see them end up in a museum (though there was at one point some talk of the Smithsonian acquiring them).   What are they worth?  Who can say...but they will not and they cannot be re-created.  You cannot get Brazilian Rosewood anymore except for unacceptable "stump wood."  Legal ivory is quite scarce and unbelievably expensive. These silver mounts would cost nearly double of what you would pay for conventional silver mounts because of their large size. And t hen there's the price of the Cairngorm.   As for the woodcarving, the carver who did these pipes said that it was so time-consuming, so intricate, and so demanding, that he will never do it again.  That having been said, if you were to attempt to recreate these in every detail, the makers agree that would cost not less than $15,000 and they would be several years in the making.My opening bid is quite fair, really.  I know it is a lot of money, but these pipes are worth every penny.  I don't want to hear offers to buy them for less.  I don’t need the money.  I just want these pipes to be played and to be passed down for generations to come.  Whether you're a re-enactor or a competition piper, consider these one-of-a-kind pipes.  You will stand out from the crowd, and you will certainly have something other than the usual beaded and combed pipes, the design of which is more a product of Victorian England than it is of the Scottish Highlands.  These pipes are distinctively Scottish and distinctively Celtic.  Not much British about them at all.  I am confident that you will not be disappointed.I will not under any circumstances ship these pipes out of the United States.  Anyone wishing to contact me directly (which is quicker than going through the eBay message system) may do so by sending an e-mail to:iju99@aol.com Place a Bid!