The picture (right) is of John Center at age 57 taken in 1888. In 1869 he is listed as both a photographer and a bagpipe and reed maker in Haymarket, Edinburth. He may or may not have been in business with his brother, William, at that time. His son, James, joined the business in 1891. William died in 1901.
In 1908 John and his family moved to Australia where they continued to make bagpipes. Center’s shop in Edinburgh was taken over by James Robertson.
Center bagpipes are very respected. The sound off the bass is generally deep and broad, creating a very nice “umbrella” of sound. His workmanship is consistently excellent, although he was not a slave to any one particular pattern. Having said that, his wood mount bagpipes seemed to follow a uniform pattern.
If you find a Center bagpipe, it’s likely made of very dark cocuswood or ebony and it will likely have pleasing features and good attention to detail. I was very fortunate over the past several months to encounter multiple original sets with chanters and other acutrements intact. It provided an excellent opportunity to fully document Center’s outstanding work.
As you can imagine, I have encountered more bagpipes than any person should admit to. These two John Center bagpipes leave me without words. Mark Saul, renowned composer and PM of the Hawthorn City Pipe Band sent additional picture and words to help complete the story.
The bagpipe pictured above was featured in the Piping Times, Vol 33 no. 2, November 1980. Mr. Tom Anderson of Brisbane was the owner at the time. He wrote that they were made by John Center in the Grassmarket, Edinburgh workshop around 1880 for an industrial exhibition in the city.
The silver is hand-chased and aside from hand-carving and engraving, the bores of all the drones and slides were reported to be lined with silver. The blow pipe has a copper tube running through it to prevent cracking. The chanter sole was said to be solid silver, 3 1/2 inches wide and 1/4 inches thick.
While updating the museum, I found pictures of the carved Center bagpipe in the old photo at the top. The “lumps” that Mark speaks of and other details are seen in these pictures. Damned if I know where I got these! In any event, both sets are spectacular.
Mark was the photographer of the bagpipe directly above (in 2007) and was able to provide the following information.
“The pipes in the old black and white photo from the Piping Times is not the same Center bagpipe! If you look closely you will see that the pipes in the black and white photo have strange large “lumps” at the top of the tuning chambers, whereas the pipes in my photos do not. I have been told that they were a set of two specially made pipes for a World’s fair. Strange that both sets ended up in Australia! The pipes are surprisingly light, probably because the mounts are not solid and neither is the chanter sole.”
Mark, thank you so much for the incredible pictures and for bringing this information to the fore. As the shield on the one bagpipe reads 1900 I’m going to take a leap and suggest that the Center family brought these pipes with them when they immigrated to Australia.
You can read more about Mark and his accomplishments/adventures at www.marksaul.com
The John Center bagpipe above conforms to his classic wood-mount profile. Stunning Cocuswood. And again below, another outstanding set encountered in Atlanta, GA.
