Hey FM, your riddle answer is the piano.

Chas, I cannot see enough to hazard a guess who the artist is. It doesn't sound to me like either McCutcheon or Dalgliesh - not quite flowery enough for either, although that might not be right.

Neither do I recognize the instrument maker. That oak leaf and acorn soundhole looks pretty distinctive, but I've not seen any like it before. I always used something simple, like an f-hole or a heart.

I do not know a Scottish name for the instrument. The Irish call it a Tiompan, and I understand it figured prominently in both Scottish and Irish music during the time when the English outlawed both bagpipes and harps. The instrument is much older, being shown on carvings on the Egyptian pyramids, probably into the 2nd millenium BC. Seems to have gotten around a lot, too, as many ancient cultures had names for it.

You can find a lot of music for it, and most of it is Scottish or Irish in origin. Elderly Instruments used to have a plethora of CD's and tapes available. They are really pretty simple to play.

I don't play much anymore, although am demonstrating at a festival this weekend. Guess my interests moved on (Bicycles and Bagpipes).

Dan