Set of Highland bagpipes probably made for a child

Set of miniature Highland bagpipes, probably made for a child, with a chanter and three drones made of laburnum wood and cherry wood with bone and horn mounts. It is inscribed 'W.H.S. / 1824' on the sole of the chanter. Possibly made in Perth.

The appearance of this set of miniature Highland bagpipes suggests that they have been made up by a maker such as Glen of Edinburgh to go with the chanter which came from a set of small pipes.

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.

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