Set of Scottish small-pipes, bellows-blown, with drones in a common stock

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Set of small-pipes, Scottish, 18th century, bellows-blown, with drones in a common stock. Bass drone with two joints. Tenor drone with two joints. Drone stock turned in a waisted style. Temperate hardwood, stained, brass and ivory mounted. Chanter stock ebony, ivory mounted. Blowpipe stock laburnum, horn mounted. Chanter, baritone drone and bellows missing. Bag cut with a long neck for the chanter. Possibly associated with chanter (K.2003.793). Formerly stock of J. and R. Glen, Edinburgh, or from the collection of the firm's proprietors.

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.

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.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-000-579-988-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: The Bagpipe Collection
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  K.2003.792
• Date: 18th century (date of manufacture)
  
• Material: Stained temperate hardwood, brass, ivory, ebony, laburnum and horn
  Set of Scottish small-pipes
  
• Dimensions: Bass drone 344 mm L; tenor drone 178 mm L; chanter stock 90 mm approx L; bag 540 mm approx L x 190 mm approx Depth
  
• What: Set of Scottish small-pipes
  
• 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: Stained temperate hardwood, brass and ivory mounted set of Scottish small-pipes with ebony and ivory mounted chanter stock.
  
• References:
  • Baines, Anthony,. Bagpipes. Occaisonal Paper on Technology 9, Oxford University Press, 1973. 
  • Cheape, Hugh,. A Checklist of Bagpipes in the Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments. Edinburgh: Reid School of Music, 1983, p. 33.
• Translations:
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