Rich, that’s too bad because Barnum was the only one of the folks you mentioned I knew anything about. So at this point I must concede that you are too smart for me. It’s just a pennywhistle. 
On 2002-02-24 17:45, Nubby wrote:
It’s just a pennywhistle. >
Or rather, 75,000 pennies! 
I think it’s pretty too, but I’m with Rich on this one.
On 2002-02-24 17:31, rich wrote:
On 2002-02-24 17:18, Graphics Guy wrote:
Maybe the fact that its one of a kind ?I’d be surprised if it is; or, at least, I’d have a hard time understanding how Avanutria could post a picture of a brass one. >
-Rich
No big mystery there - resnik sent me the photos since I have hosting space.
Nubby,
I agree wholeheartedly with you that the seller has the right to quote a price at which he or she is willing to part with a possession.
And Rich, I agree with your skepticism. I produce a counter culture zine in a locale that is rife with self-important “artistes.” One of my statements in our zine’s Hu-manifesto is
‘Artists have a moral responsibility to be honest about the worth of their creations and to not elevate themselves to the status of demigod to whom the world owes a living in exchange for the creation of a symbolic or decorative object.’ I thought this might resonate with you.
I know a little about engraving from working silver to squint my eyes at the 300.00 plus price tag for the job.
I live in the Southwest where engraving is high quality and competitively priced.
I DO respect the seller’s asking price!
Money is so subjective. So many things have emotional value that transcends economics.
Lisa
“One whistle to rule them all, one whistle to find them, one whistle to bring them all, and in the slipjig bind them” -
Gandolf Todublintown, in the Lord of the Whistles, Fellowship of the Engraved Copeland
Does anyone know a person who would engrave a whistle to the extent such as this Copeland and if so, who much would that person charge? (Just thought I’d do a little “benchmarking” here.)
I’ll do it!
Oh wait… uh… I’ll need some equipment first…
Oh yeah…and uh… I don’t know how to engrave… You’ll first have to send me to Engravers University…
Uh… yeah…
… If I had $750, I’d buy it… You know how you’ll sometimes find 5 bucks in your coat pocket every once in a while… Wouldn’t that be cool… Hey look $750 Bucks! I’ve actually had songwriter friends in Nashville loose more than that when they used their royalty checks for bookmarks!..Then find them a couple years later… “Oh, look honey… we can retire!”
Blayne, “Jack Handy” Chastain…
It says 750 or best offer. So, Rich, are you gonna make an offer?
What a lovely whistle indeed. I wish I could buy it - but I always have to think that if I did buy a whistle like that, I’d be much too nervous to play it, thinking of how much money I spent and that I’d do something to it. But it is nice to look at!
Peace,
Sara
On 2002-02-24 20:12, israel wrote:
“One whistle to rule them all, one whistle to find them, one whistle to bring them all, and in the slipjig bind them” -Gandolf Todublintown, in the Lord of the Whistles, Fellowship of the Engraved Copeland
LOL-that’s great. I just saw Lord of the Ring’s last weekend, and now reading the book! Hahahaha! Damn, I have to say I really want that whistle. Hmmm…what that would only be my allowence for the next 15 months
Caryn
Some may doubt the price… I don’t. I paid almost $3000 for a set of highland pipe drones, and they are worth every penny. Someone will buy it, bring it out in a session, and have to continually reclean the drool off of that jewel after others have seen it.
On 2002-02-24 22:57, Dave Parkhurst wrote:
Some may doubt the price… I don’t. I paid almost $3000 for a set of highland pipe drones, and they are worth every penny. Someone will buy it, bring it out in a session, and have to continually reclean the drool off of that jewel after others have seen it.
I certainly don’t doubt the price, and hope the seller can get whatever they think is appropriate for it. However, I personally would rather go to a session with a Sweetone and have to clean the drool off (not of, that’s the edit) people’s chins because of the skill of my playing, not because I could afford to buy a really pretty whistle. So I’ll keep practicing in the meantime. If I can ever play well enough to make the money to buy a whistle like that, then we’ll see…
[ This Message was edited by: stimps on 2002-02-24 23:26 ]
On 2002-02-24 22:57, Dave Parkhurst wrote:
Some may doubt the price… I don’t. I paid almost $3000 for a set of highland pipe drones, and they are worth every penny. Someone will buy it, bring it out in a session, and have to continually reclean the drool off of that jewel after others have seen it.
And they’ll pay that price because they want other people to drool over something they own, not because it’s a hundred times better than a Generation. I’d prefer them drooling over my playing (not that that’ll happen anytime soon).
It doesn’t seem unusual to me to pay three grand for drones – difficult-to-obtain materials and mixing metal/ivoroid and wood and setting reeds and so forth takes skilled labor that few can provide. But would you pay $9000 to have those same drones with, say, inlaid knotwork?
If you would, great – but don’t tell me it isn’t conspicuous consumption. And it’s not like I don’t engage in same, everyone does – but for this whistle, it’s so blatant it’s nearly self-parody.
To answer Jim Stone’s question, no, I wouldn’t offer on it, because I’ve less desire to own it than to own a plain Copeland – which in turn isn’t much desire at all.
But while I don’t want to pay $250 for a whistle because I like my $10-$30 ones, I’m not sure I could say that a $250 Copeland serves the same purpose as this one – it doesn’t seem outrageous to me to pay 10-20x the price of an entry level instrument to get the dconsistency, predictability and tone of a handcrafted instrument.
But $500 worth of modifications ($125 for silver and $375 for engraving) in order to make it “pretty”? It ends up not pretty but grotesque – it’s the whistle equivalent of wearing a ten-carat diamond.
- -Rich
Rich I thing your bringing me around, there.
The carm of the whistle is it’s humbleness. By making it fancy it looses something.
[ This Message was edited by: Nubby on 2002-02-24 23:48 ]
Yeah, stims, I agree 100%. The thing is that the Copeland will probably end up with someone who doesnt even play whistle very well, and the only people he’s going to be able to impress with his whistle are musicians who don’t play whistle pretty well themselves. I will go even further and say that playing that kind of whistle is kinda embarassing, more than anything else, because it just shows the musician’s ignorance about the music and whistle playing… but it depends on which kind of session you’re playing it, and on which kind of people are there…
I think (hope) silver sounds better
than brass or nickel. In the past I’ve
heard of an undecorated Copeland silver D selling used for 700. Well, Michael and Jim
are now selling a silver D for less
than one would expect! So 350 without
the year’s wait is 350, or maybe 400;
and the engraving would cost maybe 150?
Then maybe one adds some more bucks
because it’s a beautiful thing that one
has happened upon and doens’t have
any idea how one will ever again find another. Somewhere in there is my best offer,
if my wife will only unlock the manacle
chaining my leg to the kitchen table.
As to what one does with such a whistle,
not to play at sessions: you sleep
with it under your pillow, and take it
out to the back yard when the moon is full.
Also you take an English-Gaelic
dictionary. You play a slow air.
The faeries will come, of course
they will. You open the dictionary
and you ask them in Gaelic whatever it is
you really want to know…
I think it looks a bit cheesy, with all that foliage and all. But who asked me?
Ben Franklin once paid 4 times the going rate for a whistle. Check out this link
http://www.4literature.net/Benjamin_Franklin/Whistle/
Mike
Bloomfield ‘a bit cheesy’ is a bit of an undestatement, it’s a plain OTT ugly yoke. But then, nobody asked me either.
Yeah, but would it be so ugly if it was selling for under$50???