I recently had the opportunity to purchase an interesting old bagpipe. It is a set of "reelpipes" made by Thomas McBean Glen at #2 North Bank Street, Edinburgh. Based on the maker's stamp—which appears twice on the chanter—the pipes were made about 1843. In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in older sets of pipes, and most bagpipe stores now offer "vintage" bagpipes for sale as part of their service. Jim McGillivray may well be the leader in this field, and I have more than a few times browsed the sets on his site to learn more about the sets on offer.Another excellent way to spend some time is browsing the National Museum of Scotland's online collection of bagpipes and related items. In there, you can see more work by Thomas Glen, including the name stamp that likely marked this particular set of pipes!
I've had the chance over the years to play and examine some really old bits of piping history, not the least being Angus MacKay's practice chanter. Once, years back, I played a set of Donald MacDonald pipes that belonged to piper Thomas Standevin, and he also had old sets of uilleann and other European pipes.
I'm not exactly sure what it does for me, except that maybe I feel more connected to ages past through these various sets of pipes. Handling a reelpipe made in the 1840s, feeling the imprint of the maker's stamp...it all holds a bit of mystery for me. What was on Thos. Glen's mind the day he made these pipes? What could he see out the shop windows? Who bought them, and what use did they get back in the 1800s?
Thomas Glen died in 1873, aged 69, and here are his pipes, still circulating all these years later, and still the object of admiration. I'm certain he would be surprised to know that his pipes and tools formed part of the collection of the National Museum of Scotland. How could he conceive that a piper in the middle of the Canadian prairie would be staying up later than he should, thinking about Edinburgh in the 1840s, and wondering about the man who made them?
