I got to play a half-set of Seth Gallager pipes today and a half-set of Rogg (?) pipes. Also a set very old half-set bought in Scotland. The lady who owned them could not play and “NO” would not sell . All the chanter reeds sounded good. I liked the old set best (not because of sound)actually they all sounded the same. I’m a new piper & couldn’t get the drones to play very much. But the old set (she bought used) 10 , 15 years ago just fit on my lap if you know what I mean. No name on pipes
So is she saving them for family?
How old was this lady you are referring to? If she’s young enough, it might be worthwhile marrying her for the set. If she’s too old, you can just knock her down and run off with them. 
djm
She is kind of a collector of things, many guitars, bagpipes, art, pianoes, ( many hobbies) supports charities,a good person.
Art should be collected, then protected from handling and damage, and enjoyed for what it appears to be. Musical instruments are, by their very nature, tools. And tools should be collected by persons who actually use them. Case in point: restaurants with carpenters tools fastened to the walls are doing a bad thing. Carpenters with tools in a box slung over thier shoulder are on the right track. In my little hometown there is also a fellow who wants to own one of every type of musical instrument. He buys them or they are given to him and then they enter the “black hole” of his home, never to be seen or played again. When he dies his family will either think that they have a fortune in “old” instruments or take them all to the dump, one or the other. In the meantime, some crappy…and some great…instruments sit idle in his house, un-played, un-heard. Tell the lady to loan them to you so that you and others may enjoy them for what they are meant to do, not just take up space in her 'collection".
If she’s a charitable person and given over to causes, have her look into lending out her instruments to people who can actually use and maintain them. That way she still has the “honour”(?prestige) of owning them while they’re still being used for their intended purpose. In the bargan she also gets to have them maintained and cared for properly. You can work it out as a two-way deal, too, if the person who ends up with the instrument pays for insurance.
Dionys
P.s. Islandpiper has it right. It’s a sad thing when instruments, especially good ones, are left to collect dust in some collector’s case.
Museums and collectors play an invaluable role in protecting and preserving the artifacts of civilization, whether they are tools, toys, or works of art. Often the distinctions between these classes of objects will blur, and if by putting an object under glass or under the bed it is also taken out of the reach of young schoolboys or old experts who reckon they know enough to move tone holes or add rakish vise-marks, so much the better. There are plenty of good instruments available for people who want to play them. Finding one may be a bit more challenging than going to the local Walmart, but it’s still possible, for all that.
I once heard a lecturer on the subject of archaeology say that we just don’t see good farm tools in museums. The good ones are used for farming until they crumble. It’s the bad ones, the ideas that didn’t quite make it in the field, that wind up in museums. To put musical instruments, especially pipes, in the same class as all other “tools” is missing an important point, i.e. that people have always regarded some instruments as objects of art. This usually applies to instruments that either play especially well, such as most authentic Stradivari instruments, for example, or to instruments that are decorative or otherwise pleasing aesthetically. It should go without saying that sometimes this sort of added value is misplaced. Museums have experts and authorities to make decisions. The lady who collects instruments she doesn’t play is more likely to be doing us all a favor than depriving a deserving up-and-comer of a good instrument.
When I see an interesting tool (or musical instrument) on the wall at the local Applebee’s, I’m glad. The incredible richness of human invention and industry can certainly stand to have a few items taken out of circulation. Declaring that a musical instrument or tool or some other artifact can have only one function, the one it was “intended” to have, seems like putting a straitjacket on the way we think about material culture. It’s only stuff, after all.
I agree with both lines of thought. I’ve tweaked my own pipes in an effort to improve the sound. Probably in the future I might buy a better crafted instrument. No tweaks required but if there are, they will be sent to a real pro not me. I’ve alway’s felt that a musical instrument lasted longer if it was played. It seems to improve the sound also. I’ve even noticed that a lessor instrument sounds better when played by a master. instruments left unplayed seem to start to decay. The keys on the chanters & leather valves were already begining to stick.Oh well.
I’d rather have a set of uilleann pipes from a museum than one passed down through the hands of amature players over the years. So many old sets are so screwed up, it’s no wonder David appreciates museum pieces that have been unaltered.
There’s a tiny little museum, in a tiny little town in Eastern Oregon, that has a very old upright bass balalaika which has been there since the 1940’s. It was made by one of Russia’s most famous makers and apparently brought over by an immigrant. It’s remarkably preserved and it’s still there, in pristine shape, for anyone to see.
BTW, this museum also had several nice old wooden flutes, gibson mandolins, and a beautiful Gibson mandocello K4 model with the scroll, along with some square grand pianos and other instruments.
Speaking of old equiptment being hard to find, an archaeologist friend of mine found this well preserved old steam engine driven sawmill at a farm out in Easterm Oregon. The farmer donated it to our historical preservation project, so we disassembled it and move it over to the High Desert Museam in Bend, Or. It’s on display there now. This friend of mine goes out there a few times a year and fires it up and runs a log though it for the visitors.
Apparently much of the farm equiptment, and other useful metal machines, disappeared and got turned in for salvage during the Great Depression, or during the war.
In the main, I agree with David. But it does pain me to see these instruments in an Applebees with a huge screw driven through them to hold them up. I have seen guitars that I know folks would like to own completely screwed up by the screw through the nect and soundbox. I think preservation is important, especially of historically important instruments. But I prefer to see it done right, with respect for the instrument.
Hmmmmm…perhaps the pivotal issue here is letting instruments get near Applebees, and then going in to see them, … in effect looking up at the walls when we might best be looking at our plates and the food thereon… The real issue here could be Applebees, not damaged instruments… 
The best approach is to respect the owner’s feelings and desires. Some people do not wish to sell for many reasons, including emotional ones.
Nothing wrong with offering to acquire the item(s) from the owner, though.
When I became interested in the uilleann pipes it was the sound of the pipes that attracted me to them as well as did the GHB I play. I ordered a practice set of UP and Vol.1 & 2 on how to play. When discussing the pipes I learned others had a set (some for years) and had never learned to play but were kind enough to let see their pipes (mostly half-sets purchased before the boom in pipes). I had never even seen a half-set let alone the chance to hold and examin some of the best sets made. But I have learned to be very very careful handeling someone elses stuff, asking first then asking again if I can pump the bellows etc. I wouldn’t want to scratch them or drop them. And I would never ask to borrow them. I would ask if they wanted to sell them, but if they said “no” end of subject. I’ll just keep pluging away on MY practice set and some day someone will say “Take this set of pipes, they’ve been sitting up in the attic for years. Belonged to great great grandaddy Mcduff who never played them, still in the case.”(full set, long considered lost or destroyed) Oh yeah, dream let’s dream on.
James, where are you?