the Pipe and Tabor compendium

the Pipe and Tabor compendium

essays on the three-hole pipe

England: history of the pipe and tabor

'Regency' players (1790-1829)

1787
1789  
1787 satire: Prime Minister William Pitt, very erect, a rattle in his right hand, blowing a whistle attached
to a child's coral and bells in his left, plays to the King and Queen

1791 Mrs Hobart was a well-known Society hostess gave a 'rural breakfast' at her villa in Ham: 1791Oxford Journal - Saturday 25 June 1791

 
1789-17971789-1797 biscuit porcelain group; exported from France or Belgium (broken)
 

1793 story “…At Charing Cross, a drunken fellow with. a pipe and tabor, had called together
the idle and the vagabonds, and a pretty smart mob was collected: these are the times when thieves
and pickpockets watch their opportunity…”

‘Life; or, the adventures of William Ramble, Esq. With three frontispieces, designed by Ibbetson, ... and two new and beautiful songs,
with the music by Pleyel and Sterkel. by the author of Modern times; or, the adventures of Gabriel Outcast. In three volumes. ...
1793: Vol 2’ by Trusler, John

 
1796 advertisement 1796Oxford Journal - Saturday 30 July 1796
 

1797 A property in Hatton Garden, London, was occupied by a taberer.

The National Archives  MS 11936/407/665843

 
1799Nottinghamshire Guardian - Friday 12 February 1886
 
18001800Northampton Mercury - Saturday 19 April 1800
 
18001800Hereford Journal - Wednesday 01 October 1800
 

1801

1801  
1801 engraving 'The Peasants Flock'd to Hear the Minstrel Play'
1801 The Queen visited Weeks Mechanical Museum in Tichbourne Street, London1801Morning Chronicle - Tuesday 10 November 1801
 
18011801 copy of a medieval player by Strutt
18041804 the Green brothers busking

1804 song accompanied by pipe and tabor in the orchestra:‘Now set the bells a ringing’ : last chorus

'Chorus and trio for mixed voices accompanied
by chamber orchestra (triangle, piccolo, violins (2), oboes (2), horns, viola, bassoons, pipe and tabor, timpani, bass)' by James Hook

1807 at Sadlers Wells Theatre, London: Mr J Wyber, taborer 1807J Wyber at Drury Lane Theatre:
‘A biographical dictionary of actors, actresses, musicians, dancers, managers & other stage personnel in London, 1660-1800,’ 
by Philip H. Highfill, Jr., Kalman A. Burnim, and Edward A. Langhans. v.16
 
1807 Martin Platts - "...may have been the "Platt" paid at Drury Lane Theatre on 6 June 1807 £5 15s. 6d
for playing "tabor & pipe." Platts was listed at Drury Lane as a band member, instrument unspecified,
on a salary of £2 per week in 1812-13 and 1813-14, and £2 55. in 1815-16 and 1816-17.
..his son, also Martin, … it is perhaps likely that the subject of this entry was the Platts ...
at the King's Theatre as a drummer in 1818. "

‘A biographical dictionary of actors, actresses, musicians, dancers, managers & other stage personnel in London, 1660-1800,’
by Philip H. Highfill, Jr., Kalman A. Burnim, and Edward A. Langhans. v.7

 
1807 "Deaths: 1807York Herald - Saturday 05 September 1807
 

1809 Money was left in a will to William Richardson:
“… to William Richardson the elder of Washington, Tabourer
Assignment in consideration of £100 of rights to principal and interest… 
Endorsed with receipts for payment of consideration money…”

The National Archives Add Mss 2813

 
1812 Countess of BuckinghamShire’s venetian Fete: 1812Globe - Friday 10 July 1812
 
18121812 satire - picture on wall in book illustration
18131813 engraving
1812 - 18271812-1827 cartoon
by Rowlandson
18201820 pandean pipes player
 

“On January 15, 1814, the river Tyne at Newcastle was completely frozen over. For several days, the ice
was covered with crowds of people, and the scenes exhibited resembled a country fair or race-ground.
Booths were erected for the sale of liquors, and fires were kindled. Many races, for various kinds of prizes,
took place, both with and without skaits; while fruit and cake sellers, fidlers, pipers, razor-grinders,
recruiting parties, &c. were perambulating in all directions….”

Historical Account of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Including the Borough of Gateshead.
Originally published by Mackenzie and Dent, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1827.

 

early 19th century “A pipe and tabor player named Hilton entertained the households of the Dorking area ”

‘A Surrey Garland : customs, traditions and folk songs from the Surrey of yesteryear’, 2004

 

1816 essay on Ball Room Musicians:
“...musicians are in general treated by their Employers and by the Company, ... in a contemptuous manner.
Their being considered as obliged to play for hire for their Employer's Amusement, they are frequently treated
worse than their servants, and never, or seldom spoken too, but in an imperious haughty manner, by the names
of fiddlers, endeavouring thereby to shew a superior consequence in themselves, and the dependance of the
Musicians: or otherwise, adopt the other extreme, and become very familiar, and ply them with Liquor, in order
to make them drunk, being with those persons a common opinion and saying, that nothing is so amusing as a
drunken fiddler, the whole of the Musicians coming under this title whatever instrument they play.
This is a base and pitiful advantage, and reflects no credit on those who practice it.

Another thing that requires remark, is, that Musicians are seldom payed for their playing, without their Employers
complaining of the high price of their Labour; yet these employers never think, that the musicians cannot find
employment for more than five or six months in the Year, and that generally in the winter Season, when the
weather is bad, and their employment being principally at night, from leaving warm rooms, and being exposed
afterwards to the bad effects of night air, and consequently severe colds, together with the want of rest, in a few
years their constitutions, are destroyed or ruined, and they rendered totally unfit for business.”

Thomas Wilson 1816 Companion to the Ball Room

 
1816 letter to the Editor: 1816The Examiner 29 December 1816
 
18161816 angel band, copy of Italian painting (detail) from early 16th century
 

"Early in the nineteenth century the Corporation of Northampton had a band of musicians called
the Corporation Waits, who used to meet the Judges at the entrance into the town at the time
of the Assizes. They were four in number, attired in long black gowns, two playing on violins,
one on a hautboy, and the other on a “whip and dub” or tabor and pipe."

'THE WAITS' by F. A. HADLAND Musical News, July-September 1915

 

1820 Granville Sharp:
“…In his home, no part of his character was more remarkable than the even cheerfulness of his temper, …
How eagerly did the little females of his brothers' families watch the opening of his study door, as the signal
for their mirth and play! How gaily did the sound of his tabor and pipe set their nimble feet in motion; …”

‘Memoirs of Granville Sharp : With Observations on Mr. Sharp's biblical Criticisms by the r. r. the lord bishop of St. David's’ by Hoare, Prince

 
1827 concert 1827Morning Post 06 February 1827  

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