Set of Northumbrian small pipes

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Set of Northumbrian small pipes with a leather, stitched bag inside a red baize bag trimmed with red braid. The drones, chanter and stocks are made of ivory and the drones have metal mounts. The chanter is of the plain open type. Attached to the blowpipe is a small keyhole shaped bellows with possibly mahogany boards inlaid with satinwood and a skin body covered in plum velvet. The instrument is of 18th century date when there was a vogue for the use of ivory in musical instrument making. Although they were never tonally successful in comparison with hardwoods, such instruments were treasured for their visual qualities. The keyed chanter may be of early 19th century date.

The Northumbrian pipes are a small bellows-blown instrument with drones in a single stock and a chanter stopped at the lower end and played with 'closed' fingering, that is producing he desired note by lifting a single finger. This gives a staccato style of playing and the melodic range was extended by adding keys to the chanter.

Small pipes are a small version of the bagpipe which has been made and played in Scotland but which has been most familiar in Britain in the form of the Northumbrian Pipes, a small, bellows-blown instrument with a keyed chanter and variable drone accompaniment. Both Northumbrian Pipes and the Scottish small pipes probably derive from a Continental bellows-blown bagpipe developed by wind-instrument makers in European cities in the 17th century for chamber music and operatic performance by professional musicians. Known as the musette in France, it became a fashionable instrument in the late 17th and 18th centuries for court and drawing room recital.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-000-579-733-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: The Bagpipe Collection
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  H.LT 62 (1)
• Date: 18th century (date of manufacture of pipes)
  Early 19th century (possible date of manufacture for the keyed chanter)
  
• Material: Ivory, leather, metal, wood, skin, and velvet
  Northumbrian small pipes
  
• Dimensions: Chanter 249 mm L; blow pipe 171 mm L; 235 mm x 267 mm
  
• What: Northumbrian small pipes
  
• Subject:
• Who: John Peacock (player and improver of pipes)
  Robert Reid (improver of pipes)
  The Museum of Piping, Glasgow (place of display)
  
• Where:
• Event:
• Description: Northumbrian small pipes with ivory drones, chanter and stocks.
  
• References:
  • Baines, Anthony,. Bagpipes. Occasional Paper on Technology 9, Oxford University Press, 1973. 
• Translations:
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