Wow, that’s quite a find! Hopefully no one has monkeyed around with the bore or tone holes in the intervening years since its manufacture. If you’re on the east coast (and even if you’re not), I’d suggest that David Quinn & Benedict Koehler might be the very people you seek to restore this instrument.
Best of luck, and if / when it’s playing again, please do post some video of the results!
I couldn’t pass it up – It looked old— and complete — the person had pictures with it partially together with regulators faced down so you could not see the keys.
The 390mm chanter suggests a C# set. Best to check this against the length of the Baritone Regulator, which should be slightly longer than the chanter by 10 to 12mm.
The mounts on the chanter look to me like bone, perhaps horse ?
I recall Standeven talking to me about a Coyne set he had bought from Matt Kiernan , many moons ago. He sent me that set for restoration but it was definately not a Coyne so perhaps he confused this set with the one he sent me.
I updated the file set in the google drive and added 2 measurements…
–if measuring the blackwood on the Baritone regulator 400mm; if including the Ivory top 423mm.
so… probably a C# set.
Inside bore of the bottom of the chanter is ~11mm; fairly long reed though—about 90mm for chanter.
Is this the set Standeven and some of his pupils called the “holy set”? So named because of its “antiquity and sweet tonality.”
I own an old boxwood set once owned by Standeven. I communicated with a few people, former students, etc., trying to find out more of its history. A couple people suggested that it was the “holy set” but others said, no, the holy set was of black-colored wood, and one person recalled the chanter was by Matt Kiernan.
Some of Standeven’s students are still around. Perhaps they could shed some light on this.
The set that Tom called the “piob Naofa” was in B, if I recall correctly. I also remember a Coyne set in boxwood. That one went to
Bill McKenty who later sold it.
I was looking at the chanter — it has nickel silver keys — (same style as the the rest of the set but the regs and drones are brass. the cap is half brass and half nickel silver.
The original owner seems to think the the chanter was from Kiernan…
Matt Kiernan generally stamped “M KIERNAN” his chanters (sometimes more than once). Also, I’ve not seen many Kiernan chanters with more than a Cnat key.