Glass bottle containing six Highland bagpipe chanter reeds

Glass bottle with tin screw cap. Contains six Highland bagpipe chanter reeds of Spanish cane. Part of a collection of bagpipe making tools from Robert Thomson, Bagpipe Maker, Leicester, England.

This material from a bagpipe maker's workshop is typical of the tools, raw materials and products of the trade. Many bagpipe makers also made reeds for chanters and drones, sold them but also used them for testing chanters and drones in the finishing and setting up process.

Most of the bagpipe makers making Highland bagpipes lived and worked in the Scottish cities such as Edinburgh and Glasgow, but there were also some famous names in London such as MacGregor, Ross and Starck. Robert Thomson, Bagpipe Maker, is unusual for being Leicester, England, where he set up business in the 1950s and was still making bagpipes in the mid-1960s. His business is now closed.

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