http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2512138387&category=624
Information on W. Brennan as follows; William Brennan (Wilmington, Delaware) played the pipes and worked in the taylor brothers workshop. He inherited the taylor reamers. The tools are now thought to be in the Bucks County Historical Society Museum.
Read carefully about what is original and what is not. It might be a nice set to restore.
Dionys
I now have the instrument in the workshop for restoration and can confirm that there is not a lot that is original - just the chanter, bodies and most of keys on the regulators and possibly the main stock. Will add some pictures shortly.
Question is does anyone know the whereabouts of other Brennan sets - it would be nice to restore the missing parts with as close to the originals as possible ?
If sending peoples details please check that it is OK with them first and would be best as a private message
Thanks
Chris
David P now has this set for sale on the NPU website -no price set in the ad. Presumably Chris has finished the restoration/ rebuild.
Ken
Suzanne Neary, in Tacoma Washington, which is in the NW of the USA, owns a set of Brennans which were once the property of Ted Anderson, who took it all apart and used the keys, drone pieces, and ferrules as knicknacks according to pipemaker John Pedersen, who said in an interview he was more than a bit let down…Ted told me the bores on Suzanne’s set are good, maybe by the Taylors themselves, but the outsides are nothing fancy. It has a fourth regulator for ‘E’ or something too, I think. Maybe one of the Seattle boys could forward you a photo.
Don’t know of anyone else with a Brennan out there. I’ve seen a few pix of old pipers with similar type sets, such as Adam Tobin of Chicago. I own a much cruder set in the same style; I think Brennan was the best at this Taylor Ad Reductio style, other makers took it to the next level of making real Taylor style keywork, with the keys mounted inbetween seperate metal tabs. I’ve a bunch of mimeographed photos of old pipers, including JE Brennan playing BOTH right and left handed! Actually it’s a photo negative…he has a four reg set here.
The Taylors’ tools are in the Mercer Museum in Bucks County Pennsylvania, along with a set of theirs. As is often the case, they’ve forgotten what the pipes are or their history, etc. They can send you photos of the tools and pipes but it takes time.