Record

Set of Highland bagpipes or 'Lovat Reel Pipes'

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Scottish, late 18th or early 19th century

Postcard of Set of Highland bagpipes or 'Lovat Reel Pipes'.
000-000-579-978-C
© National Museums Scotland

Set of Highland bagpipes or 'Lovat Reel Pipes'

Set of Highland bagpipes or 'Lovat Reel Pipes', Scottish, late 18th or early 19th century, with bass and tenor drones only. Bass drone with three joints. Two tenor drones with two joints each. Laburnum decorated with combing in sets of nine rings, bone mounts and ferrules, chanter stock of bone. Bass drone mid joint replaced in a light hardwood, each drone top joint cracked and bound with string and thread, and chanter and blowpipe missing. Sheepskin bag with green woollen bag cover in a plain weave. Formerly stock of J. and R. Glen, Edinburgh, or from the collection of the firm's proprietors.

The Highland bagpipe of Scotland is a universally recognised musical instrument but historically, in the last 2-300 years, only one in a variety of bagpipes growing out of the rich piping and musical traditions of the British Isles. Though its precise origins are still obscure, it seemed to arrive in the Highlands in the 15th or 16th centuries and was adopted as the principal musical instrument after the clarsach of the Gaelic clans. By the late 18th century, the Highland bagpipe had emerged in more of less fixed form with chanter and three drones, the style and embellishment becoming a matter of fashion as well as standardisation with a uniformity being required for band playing and competition. By the early 19th century professional bagpipe makers were offering different sizes of Highland bagpipe such as 'Full-size', 'Half-size', 'Reel' or 'Lovat Reel Pipe' and Miniature.

This piece comes from the Glen and Ross Collection of musical instruments which were preserved in the shop of 'J & R Glen, Highland Bagpipe Makers' until it closed about 1978. This was the business founded in 1827 by Thomas McBean Glen in the Cowgate in Edinburgh, dealing in and repairing musical instruments. His brother, Alexander Glen, specialized in bagpipe-making and was succeeded by his son David. Thomas' sons, John and Robert Glen, succeeding to the business in 1866, probably did most to collect instruments and their antiquarian interests were carried on by Andrew Ross who acquired the business from the Glens in 1947. The National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland purchased the bagpipe collections from the family in 1983.


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Online ID: 000-000-579-978-C
Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
Project: 0869: The Bagpipe Collection
Project description | View all records in project
Ref: National Museums Scotland  K.2003.772
Date: Late 18th or early 19th century (date of manufacture)
Material: Laburnum, bone, sheepskin and green wool
Dimensions: Bass drone 623 mm L; tenor drones 305 mm L
What:
Subject:
Who: Andrew Ross (successor to John and Robert Glen)
Glen and Ross Collection (musical instrument collection)
John and Robert Glen, Highland Bagpipe Makers
Reid School of Music, University of Edinburgh (place of display)
Where: Scotland (place of manufacture)
Event:
Description: Laburnum and bone mounted set of Highland bagpipes or 'Lovat Reel Pipes' with sheepskin bag with green woollen bag cover.
References:
Translations:
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