Three separate auctions:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3565366593&category=16226
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3565373629&category=16226
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3565379376&category=16226
100 years old, the descriptions say. Hence “antiques.” Patsy Brown died in 1958 or ‘59, according to a recent Pipers’ Review article on pipemaking in America. You are welcome to claim to the Fish and Wildlife people that they’re Taylor chanters, of course - the Taylors died in 1892 and '93 - assuming these chanters don’t have P. Brown stamped on them somewhere. You’ll need to have them verified as antiques to transport that lovely ivory across international borders without fear of it being confiscated, you see. CITES hogwash.
Jim has plenty of GreatStuff this time out, too, check his other auctions.
They wouldn’t be the chanters that were bundled in with that Bb Willie Rowesome set that was on Ebay a while back, would they?
They have been cleaned up very nicely. The chanter cap on the third looks like a quick fix too.
Ken
Ken, the photos of that set are still on eBay…if that’s the set you are thinking of.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2555393228
The buy now price seems very high surely for the two complete chanters, for as far as I know Patsy Brown’s stuff was never top notch, or Taylor quality, or am I mistaken.
These are the Patsy Brown chanters from the Boston auction. While I might have a bias as the owner, my opinion is shared with Brad Angus (who restored them) that they are both fine chanters. Great feel to the chanters especially with their overall weight (ebony, big nickel silver keys, and popping valve do add up), plays beautifully, a genuine article from ca. 1905 - a great opportunity for someone.
Brad and I have had a few Brown sets through our hands (Brad has restored two complete Brown sets, in addition to these chanters). The Brown chanters are accurate and compare very nicely with Taylor sets.
Some mistake the quality of Brown’s work for a Taylor. For instance, the chanter shown on the Taylor web site out of Sweden is definitely a Brown, not a Taylor. Also, a set recently offered up for a sale on the East coast was advertised as a Taylor but is a Brown.
Jim, you say they’re “both” great chanters, and it’s clear which two you’re referring to–what of the bargain basement job with no keys and non-original reed?
The third chanter plays. Most old chanters from almost all makers show evidence of modification. Chanter 3 has had its share. But, having said that, there is potential for that chanter. Its main challenge on the auction block is being compared with the other two finished chanters.
Antique chanters are not available often.
Hey Jim!
Just curious…why are you selling the chanters?
I am hoping to fund the restoration of the Willie Rowsome set.
"Some mistake the quality of Brown’s work for a Taylor. For instance, the chanter shown on the Taylor web site out of Sweden is definitely a Brown, not a Taylor. " Jim McGuire
You are definitely wrong Jim. I’ve seen and handled the chanter myself. It’s a Taylor alright, probably a C-sharp, it’s hardly been played. It came in the original box too. You can recognise a Taylor by the quality of the keys and the metalwork on the chanter - plus other details. There’s no other pipemaker that comes close
Then we have a difference of opinion but, if that’s a Taylor chanter on the web site, then the current eBAY auction listing should read ‘Taylor chanter’, too. Hey, if it helps my auction, I’m game.
David Quinn’s articles on the Taylors should be used as standard references in IDing any of these pipes. He’s looked at more of them than probably anyone, and has a very keen eye for what seem like quite neglible differences in details. I’d hew to his judgment in any instance, here. Is a Taylor popping valve flat on the bottom? Are the set screws home made looking? How about the shape of the retaining bar? How many rivets in the bottom? Will there be lines in the ferrule itself? Ask your typical interested party these kinds of questions and you won’t get much of a reply.
One key element in real Taylor pipes is thicker sheet metal than the competitors. The chanter C key will be flat in profile; Patsy Brown chanters seem to be curved a bit. And of course Taylor pipes are very clean work. Brown was an excellent carver but he seems to have had an awful lathe - the lines in the metal are pretty crazy, usually. Nicholas Bessabaroff, curator of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, wrote about Brown that he made pipes on a lathe he built himself.
My blushes, please. I can think of one person who most likely has looked at more Taylor instruments than I have, and that is Jim McGuire.
I have seen and handled the chanter in question, and while I do think it’s a nice piece of work, I have to agree with Jim. Not a Taylor. Brown, maybe, or perhaps Michael Anderson. In the Taylor style, all right, but there are differences in the keywork and turnery that don’t fit.
DMQ
Patsy Brown was an Electrian, and Brick Layer by trade. Patsy got most of his ivory from the Elephant keepers at the Franklin Park Zoo in Dorcester, MA where Patsy lived. In regards to What Kevin wrote about Nicolas Bessabaroff, the curator of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Nicholas also says that Patsy Brown was a genius and he didn’t even know it.
Draught, bottle, canned?
My Brown chanter did come with a “widget…”
Thanks, Dave. One of the most fascinating things for me in the past five years has been the emergence/discovery of Patsy Brown sets.
Bill Ochs purchased his Patsy Brown set in the mid-1970s. There was one Brown set in Rhode Island that recently changed hands within the past 12 months or so. I had a look at another Patsy Browne set still in Boston in 2001 (chanter, full 4-reg set) and the chanter and set were virtually identical in overall look and feel (the chanters were very close) to the Brown set on eBAY that I had with me. Then, there’s Kevin Reitman’s marvelous Brown set. So, we’ve had a good group of items to compare and contrast. Brad Angus has fully restored two of the sets and restored the current chanters now on eBAY.
So, when loose chanters (3) turn up in Boston, I now think Brown. We know that Brown was making full sets around 1905 - 1911. The Willie Rowsome set from the eBAY was photographed in that Willie Rowesome photo in O’Neills in 1905. So, seeing a bunch of Brown chanters in with the Rowsome set is logical to me.
oops..sorry..I mean " GENIUS"..I was thirsty when I wrote this. 
Mine’s pretty crude, actually. One piece keys, and pretty rude stuff, not as nice as the Brennan pipes I’ve seen in pics, which also had the one piece reg keys. The famous 1916 picture of New York musicians (including Michael Coleman) which is on the cover of the Wheels of the World (original LP and now Vol. 1 CD) shows two brothers, the Crowleys. One has a practice set, the other a full set which looks rather like mine. These Crowleys were pipemakers themselves, according to Mark Walstrom’s recent pipemakers in America article; so perhaps my set is a Crowley. The person I bought it from told me it was a Brown; I think he said Eugene Frain said so; but it’s far from the quality of the Ebay set Jim bought, or other Browns I’ve seen in pics.
The chanter that came with the set is much nicer, however; and very like the Brown chanters I’ve seen personally and in pictures.
As a note to anyone who buys one of these Brown chanters - if they are anything like mine, they will have a very small reed seat, and thus require a reverse taper staple. Mine works with just a slight taper in the blank; you’ll need a mandrel which is the minimum diameter ID of the rolled staple, to fill up the maximum amount of room. It helps to purchase a selection of used drill bits to make mandrels with. Even with the reverse taper and as wide a reed head as possible mine is usually a little flat in the second octave, making a rush necessary. I simply use a wire bent into a loop at the bottom, with strips of cane attached with string. A great deal of experimentation is required to find what works best, and I’m still trying things out in my chanter.
With all due respect I 'm not convinced. I think that both Jim and David are mistaken, The chanter on the Swedish site is indeed a Taylor. Cork piper Eoin 0’Riabhaighs exhumed Taylor Goodman/Phair set has the same details, such as the five rivets holding the ivory decoration on to the end of the popping valve, and the same fine metalwork. The quality of the overall finish of the instrument is also comparable to Rolf Knusel’s Taylor chanter.
Getting back to my original thoughts - are Patsy Brown’s Taylor style pipes good instruments to play on, how do they compare to the Taylor Bros. instruments?