Thursday, July 16, 2009

19th Century 10-point Vertical Aligned Inlaid Star Drum by Klem & Brother (Philadelphia)

eBay Seller jojo-au-gogo ( 1125) offering eBay item no. 170358800517 for a Buy-It-Now price of $695.00 is described as follows:

An antique rope snare drum from the mid 1800's in excellent condition. The shell has the original finish with a nice patina. The mahogany shell has a wood engraving [actually an inlay] of a compass rose [not quite, it's a 10-pointed star, vertical alignment]. The rims are maple and have a painted [stenciled] design that goes all around the rims. The heads are adjusted by ropes with leather and metal thongs [tugs, or ears] with the rope going through metal hooks on the top and bottom rims [counterhoops]. The rope looks to be in good shape and the heads are firm with small holes that look like insect or worm holes. I can see through the air hole the label that may help date the drum it says “KLEM & BROTHER Importers Manufactures and Dealers of Musical Instruments & Strings No. 705 Market Street Philadelphia." Klem & Brother was in business from 1819 until 1896 manufacturing flutes (National music museum at University of SD) but they were importers and also dealers. The drum size is 12" (304mm) deep and 16.5" (419mm) in diameter.

1 comment:

  1. August 18, 2009: The same eBay seller relisted this drum on eBay with a buy-it-now price of $395.

    ReplyDelete

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