Piper, 1st Battalion The Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment), 1895 (c)

Glass negative, W Gregory and Company, 51 Strand, London, 1895 (c).

This image comes from a collection of glass plate negatives associated with William Gregory and Company. The negatives depict the British Army, including some members of the colonial forces, 'at home' in Britain during the 1890s.

As well as being intimate portraits of soldiers from this era, the images provide detailed illustrations of uniforms worn during the high point of military tailoring.

The piper is pictured wearing a blue glengarry with a silver regimental badge and black feathers. His jacket is a blue doublet, with distinctive piped shoulder shells and double inverness flaps at the front and rear. The inverness flaps hang down below a large leather belt with a regimental buckle. The cuffs, collar and seams of the doublet, as well as the inverness flaps, are piped white.

The piper also wears a kilt in regimental tartan, and a fly plaid of the same pattern is cast over his shoulder and fastened with a plaid brooch of regimental pattern. His sporran is of white and black horse hair, and his socks are diced green and red. He carries bagpipes. His dirk is visibly attached to his belt and his skean dhu is tucked into his sock.

One of a collection of 280 glass negatives, associated with Gregory and Company, London, and F G O Stuart, 1892 (c)-1900.