This Double Chanter makes its second appearance on e-bay after being withdrawn to try and ascertain its exact provenance.  My thanks to Graham Wells for his kind support and effort in this direction. Identifying the provenance has not been possible due mostly to its maker leaving no marks.  The chanter is being sold for and on behalf of Jim Bryan's widow.  Jim Bryan, maker of Northumbrian Small Pipes and co-author of the seminal 1967 book, The Northumbrian Bagpipes, was given this double chanter by Willy Hamilton whose name will be known to afficianados of both the Irish and Northumbrian small pipes. Jim wrote an article about the chanter for An Piobaire in October 2003, an extract of which I copy here (less pictues) as background information:

"I had a dear friend, a much older man who first learned to play the Scottish Highland Bagpipe in the 1914-18 war. His name was William Hamilton. He became a reedmaker and later a maker of pipes. As a young man he travelled about the farms as a ploughman and became a player and a maker of the Irish Bagpipes. He it was who invented the idea of stirrups on the regulators to hold the keys. He lived in Maryhill, Glasgow and came to visit me at Wideopen to learn about the Northumbrian Pipes. Anyway, during the hard times in the early 1930s William was helpful to an Irish emigrant family in Glasgow; he supported them out of his own earnings for some considerable time, until the father of the family found employment. He came to Will and said “I have nothing to give to say thank you, save only this chanter, it is a good one”. Will kept the chanter for forty years, and then gave it, with some other pieces, into my keeping, and I have kept it by me for forty years, as a keepsake of a lovely man. There is one having the same decorative cow-horn top (possibly the same maker) on a set in the National Museum store-room (!) at Collins Barracks."

Jim often recounted how Willy admonished him to keep the chanter safe as "the Irish will come looking for it one day."  The provenance can not be precisely determined though Jim believed it might have been an early Robert Reid example though this of course can not be verified. But what we do know is that this chanter, made of boxwood, was much loved and much played, a sure sign of its quality.  This double chanter without doubt provides a unique insight into the history of pipe making and provides you with the opportunity to own a small piece of piping history.  Apart from wear and polish due to use and its age, it is in very good condition.