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Side view of a stock-and-horn probably made as a copy of the shepherd's hornpipe

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18th century

Side view of a stock-and-horn probably made as a copy of the shepherd's hornpipe
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Stock-and-horn made of ebony turned on a lathe and decorated with ivory ferrules and insets. Nothing is known of its origins, but this object has the appearance of a copy of a traditional instrument. It was probably made in the 18th century as a copy of an earlier hornpipe or shepherd's pipe which, although rare, still then existed in parts of Scotland.

Robert Burns described acquiring a Stock-and-horn of sheep bone and cow horn sounded with an oaten reed in 1794 (see K.1998.43). The instrument in this case has a cap to cover the reeds as on the practice chanter and has two parallel cylindrical pipes bored in the 'stock'. The set of the finger holes is identical. The player's fingers spanned both pipes which would sound in unison or the reeds could be set to play out of tune for effect.

This stock-and-horn belonged to James Drummond (1816 - 1876), Edinburgh artist and joint curator of the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1848 - 1876) and curator of the National Gallery of Scotland (1868 - 1876). Drummond specialised in recording and illustrating West Highland monuments and in reproducing historical scenes. He collected historical objects to copy and use as 'props' in his pictures and this object might have been used in this way.

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