This highly ornate drum, measuring 17" x 14", was manufactured by Ludwig & Ludwig in Chicago, Illinois, most likely in the 1920s. The drum has hoops inlaid with pearl, double-tension tube lugs, and three hand-painted scenes on the shell. Although the paint has deteriorated, one can tell that each scene depicted some type of Renaissance setting. The strainer is of simple design that does not allow the snares to be turned off.
This is a modern reproduction of an American Revolutionary Era parade drum. Its shell is a natural varnish finish decorated with tacks, which provide a simple means of applying a decorative pattern, and which support the shell at the point where it overlaps itself when it is bent into a circle. This drum was handmade by Charles 'Buck' Soistman in 1972 at the Rolling Drum Shop in Baltimore, Maryland for John Bosworth. It was one of the last drums made by Soistman, and features a rope-tensioning mechanism with wood hoops on a 16" x 16" wood shell. The snares consist of heavy-gauge, gut strands.
This parade drum bears the coat of arms for the Royal Air Force Band, and would therefore have been manufactured after the Royal Air Force was established during World War I. It measures 11" x 14" and is tuned or 'braced' with ropes, a common method of tightening the heads without using screws or lugs. To tune a rope drum, the leather 'ear' is pulled down on the ropes, providing increased tension on both heads simultaneously.
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