News
February 01, 2025

Pipes owned by Robert Reid up for auction

Robert Reid 1948, note the three bass drone stocks on the bagpipe.

Two sets of pipes once owned by the great Robert Reid are being auctioned by his grandson and granddaughter.

One instrument appears to be the same drones seen in Reid’s photographs, but seemingly without the long stocks that Reid would use for the two tenors, believing they produced a better sound.

The listing states the projecting mounts are “simulated ivory,” which might have been unusual for a piper of Reid’s stature to play in his competing heydays from the 1920s to the 1940s, when imitation ivory was often casein made from cow’s milk or fledgling petroleum-based materials. The tuning pins feature what appear to be unusual bands, perhaps to restrict the wood from splitting.

“These pipes are subject to typical age and use related wear and tear,” the auction listing states. “Crack running through (what we think is the bass) pipe.”

The lot includes an assortment of pipe and practice chanters and what appears to be Reid’s original leather pipe box. One pipe chanter, made by Peter Henderson, features an engraved silver sole hallmarked 1914.

The Reid pipes, chanters and leather pipe case currently up for auction.

So far, the only preliminary bid is for £1,200 (about $2,160), and the instrument is expected to realize £2,000 to £4,000, a far cry from the nearly $50,000 paid in 2022 for the R.G. Lawrie pipes played by Donald MacPherson, or even the $13,000 paid in 2010 for MacDougall drones owned and played by the great John Wilson of Edinburgh and Toronto.

The second set is a far less distinct instrument with imitation ivory mounts, also once owned by Robert Reid. The pipes are listed as “unmarked,” but they could well be a rare surviving set made by Reid himself. One bid so far is for £480, and the pipes are expected to realize £800 to £1,200.

Both sets will be part of a live auction in Glasgow on February 12th.

Born in Slamannan, Scotland, in 1895, Robert Reid was one of piping’s most significant competitors and contributors. He was taught by John MacDougall-Gillies, a pupil of Alick Cameron. Thus, Reid was a direct conduit to the “Cameron School” of piobaireachd that descended from Angus MacKay and the MacCrimmons.

The other set of Robert Reid pipes for sale.

Reid had far fewer pupils than his contemporaries Robert Brown, Robert Nicol and Donald MacLeod, who prolifically taught the “MacPherson” style of the music that they learned from John MacDonald of Inverness.

Reid’s foremost pupil was the late Willie Connell, who worked at Reid’s bagpipe-making business and received almost daily instruction in piobaireachd for decades. He taught several well-known amateur pipers, including Andrew MacNeill and David Murray. As a result, the less legato and more direct Cameron school of piobaireachd interpretation has mainly been subsumed by or assimilated into the MacPherson style.

Robert Reid died in 1965, infamously instructing his survivors to burn all of his piping manuscripts. However, many of the tapes he made as an early adopter of recording technology are with the Piobaireachd Society.

 

Related

1 COMMENT

  1. The “ imitation ivory “ mounts look like celluloid. Highly flammable but with a grain pattern going all the way through. I may be wrong of course.

Subscribers

Registration

Forgotten Password?