Small oil painting, copy of 'The Bagpiper' by Sir David Wilkie, 1813

This portrait of an anonymous piper shows possibly an itinerant musician playing a bellows blown bagpipe with three drones set in a common stock and a long chanter. This was the instrument sometimes called the 'Cauld Wind Pipes'.

Wilkie is well known for his portrayal of the traditional culture of Scotland in a rich style of figurative art. The original painting, in oils on a wood panel, has been in the collections of the Tate Gallery since 1847. The image circulated widely in print form and was copied by amateur artists.

Bagpipes blown with bellows are commonly seen in museum collections in Scotland but, at least until the end of the 20th century, seldom heard in use apart from the Northumbrian small pipes and Irish Uilleann pipes. A bellows piping tradition has enjoyed a revival in Scotland since the early 1980s and the founding of the Lowland and Border Pipers' Society. The pitch and tone of the small pipes for example makes them ideal for playing with other instruments and the use of the bellows, strapped under one arm, inflating the bagpipe with dry air as opposed to the hot humid air of the player's breath preserves the reeds and saves the energy of the piper. Bellows-blown bagpipes have characteristically been termed 'cauld wind pipes.'

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