Prize Highland Bagpipe

Highland Bagpipe awarded as the Prize to Pipe Major John Buchanan, 42nd Highlanders, at the Highland Society Competition in Edinburgh in July 1802. These pipes were part of the Duncan Fraser Collection.

Highland Bagpipe of cocus wood, ivory-mounted, of standard, modern form with three drones, including bass and two tenors, turned with a conventional decorative finish of beading and cowling, the only observable difference being in the smaller proportions of the projecting mounts on the drones.

Dr Alexander Duncan Fraser MD (1849-1920), born in Lochgilphead of an Inverness-shire family, graduated in medicine from Edinburgh University in 1874 and subsequently practised in Northumberland, Skye and Falkirk. His lifelong hobby was playing the pipes, studying the history of the bagpipe and its music, and collecting ancient and modern bagpipes 'of all nations'. In 1906 he published a book, Some Reminiscences and the Bagpipe, in which many of the instruments in his collection were illustrated. Some of his collection was donated to the Royal Scottish Museum in 1947.

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