VINTAGE PIPES


Vintage Pipes


Do you have a special old set of pipes with an interesting story? If you would like them featured here contact John Slavin by email at pipingtoday@designfolk.com


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HIS is a set of Peter Henderson pipes thought to date from the 1880s. The earliest known owner was William MacBeth, a Seaforth Highlander who left Scotland for Peoria, Illinois in 1923. The pipe case contained a letter written in 1898 from Scotland to South Africa, and suggests the pipes may have seen use in the Boer War. Another letter dated 1914 offered MacBeth best wishes for volunteering to serve in the front lines, indicating they may have seen Great War action. The pipes are ebony. The drones are mounted in ivory


and German silver, an alloy of copper (60%), nickel (20%) and zinc (20%), and silver plated. The stocks are mounted in Sterling silver, likely cast. This unusual combination of metal mounts has been seen in other Henderson pipes of that era.


After MacBeth, the pipes were owned by another Seaforth Highlander, Donald Jeffries, and later found their way to the most recent owner, Eamonn Rynne, an Ameri- can living in Ireland, who owned them for 46 years. l


Thanks to Jim McGillivray of Aurora, Ontario for the photos and information on these pipes. For more, go to www.piping.on.ca or www.pipetunes.ca.


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