This is really a tale of three bagpipes and a quest to discover the makers. Back in the 1990's I found two bagpipes in Woodstock Ontario. One was a very early R G Lawrie Bagpipe and the other was said to be a John Center bagpipe. I was pretty confident that it wasn't Center's work however there was nothing that I could associate it with. It was unique in my experience. There were a few replacement parts. I was impressed with the presence of the bagpipe, both aesthetically and musically. As I was reshuffling my life one day, I parted with it with great regret. I did document the bagpipe in hope that someday something would surface. It did.
Alexander MacArthur
Every once in a while our patience and persistence is rewarded. I was absolutely shocked one day to see pictures of a bagpipe posted by Derek Marr that were nearly identical to my "unknown # 39". With great excitement I emailed Derek who was kind enough to send me the pictures below. The bagpipe is clearly stamped A. M'Arthur. A quick reference to Jeannie Campbell's outstanding books told the MacArthur story. Apparently Alexander made bagpipes at 26 Thistle Street, Glasgow, however the bagpipes were "finished" (mounts affixed) by Robert MacKinnon. Interestingly in the 1881-1882 directory, MacKinnon is listed at 12 Royal Arcade and Peter Henderson is listed at 17 Royal Arcade, Donald MacPhee's old shop. Donald died on Dec 9, 1880.
Many years earlier I had the good fortune of documenting a rather unusual bagpipe that came out of northern Ontario. When I put together the pieces on the two very similar MacArthur bagpipes I revisited this bagpipe and found stunning similarities. Ironically it was offered for sale and, well, it's part of my collect now.
If you study the pictures you'll see the same small beading and the same profile of the top sections. The mounts were made of horn.

In the last picture, showing the three stocks, tenor 1 is from the "Woodstock" MacArthur. It is not difficult to see the similarities with the other stocks.