Thursday, January 7, 2016

Chandler Peabody Drum with Upside Down Eagle

Dave Pavlick (davesdrumzzz@juno.com) of Woodbury, Connecticut wrote to us recently:

Attached are photos of the Chandler & Peabody drum that I acquired this summer.  It is 16" diameter X 13 1/2" deep with matching red hoops, 1-1/2" wide.  Both hoops have the same nail pattern.
 
The tack pattern looks the same as the  other two Chandler & Peabody drums that are on your website.

 
The painted Eagle has age, but was probably done later (100 years ago?). The Eagle is painted upside down on the drum body, obviously by someone that knew nothing about drums.

There was enough of the label left showing Peabody and [S]alem to attribute this drum to Chandler & Peabody.

Jim Ellis and his crew at Cooperman Drums, figured out that Chandler & Peabody made the drum, and did the new heads, rope, and ears on it.

When I found the drum, it had a Ludwig calf head, a pigskin head, and was missing ears.

The Eagle is ... painted upside down.

If you are looking at the photo of the Eagle side of the drum, the snare beds will be under the top head of the drum.

In other words, to play the drum with the  snares at the bottom of the
drum, the Eagle would be upside down.

As soon as Jim Ellis disassembled the drum at Cooperman's and we saw where the snare beds were on the drum body we knew the Eagle was painted upside down.

I decided to keep the Eagle on the drum, because the patina of the drum was so nice, I didn't want to destroy it by removing the Eagle.

Thank you for your informative website.

Dave.


Sunday, January 3, 2016

Need Info - James W. Drake Drum

A reader asks:

Looking for some guidance on getting an appraisal on a civil war drum that has been handed down through the family.



The owner user was James W. Drake. There is a handwritten note from his immediate family on the skin. The drum manufacturer is A.G. Peters & Sons (stamped on the inside of the drum).

We have researched James Drakes military records through the U.S. National archives.

Thanks for any guidance you can offer.

Regards, Kevin

P.R. Winn, Drummaker

An article by W. Lee Vinson, author and publisher of BostonDrumBuilders.com and blog.BostonDrumBuilders.com . For Lee's story about ...