I owe to the kindness and generosity of my friend Jeff Cullen the gift of an unusual PC which he won on ebay for a song and which he expected to be a smallpipe chanter. It is a mid-19th-century chanter in ebony with a small and somewhat plain ivory sole and a narrow bulb reminiscent of Alexander Glen’s. It has seen a lot of use, the fingerholes are very worn and, quite remarkably, the shaft between high g and f has been replaced with a piece of ebony, an old and unique repair interrupting a crack from f to top of the bulb, which had been whipped with a piece of string. Maybe this piece of material was also added in order to correct the top notes against the bottom notes of the scale. The item is in some way reminiscent of Angus MacKay’s practice chanter in the COP museum, though the sole is undamaged.
The most extraordinary feature is a very faint stamp which is only legible with a strong magnifying glass against strong light, and which would be extremely hard to photograph, letter by letter. It is nonetheless quite clear, though it took me nearly half an hour to read it properly:
P BANNON / EDINB
The “A” letter is hardly obvious but the reverse V shape is clear enough. The letters are double-spaced and P, B and D have very long horizontal bars to the left. The shape of the letters is indeed more elaborate than unusual. The uncommon type of lettering recalls John Cameron/Dundee’s stamp and I believe that the PC is contemporary, ca. 1840-1860.
Have you ever heard of this maker? Please keep him in mind for your fourth book (tongue in cheek), the quest just never ends.
Andreas Hartmann-Virnich
