British Military Drum

We received the following email from Matt in Connecticut who contacted us after purchasing an old relic drum with a painted "GR". We spoke with him and emailed him referring him to an article (republished in this blog) by Kjell Tore Innervik titled, "The old military drum from the 19 century. Probably used in "Drangedal", western Telemark, Norway", and online here.

Ellis,

        Thanks for taking a few minutes to talk with me this morning before your meeting, I appreciate it and look forward to speaking with you again. I have attached some pictures of the drum showing the painting, tack pattern and inside of the shell where it appears that there was once a label. The spot that appears to have been the label measures approximately 8" wide by 7" high with cropped corners that make it 8 sided. One of the counter hoops is in two pieceds and the other has some chuncks taken out of it but I have a bag full of wood pieces that are the missing pieces out of that hoop so that the hoop could be reconstructed. Both flesh hoops have also been included with the drum (not pictured here) and one is intact and the other is split. This looks very much like the shipwreck drum that I was shown yesterday while at Cooperman, with the same tack patern and what paint is left looks like it could be similar or the same as well. I was not able to find any of those pictures on line to link as a comparison but I am sure that Jim Elis at Cooperman would be happy to send them to you if you are interested in seeing them.

 

        I originaly bought the drum with the hopes of restoring it to playing condition and sell to someone in the Fife & Drum community but found that the work that needs to be done was a little more extensive than originaly thought. I spoke with the previous owner at length before I bought it and he was up front about what work needed to be done but sometimes it is hard to tell until you have the drum in front of you. After consulting with Jim ElLis and a couple of other vintage field drum friends of mine the decision for me is to leave it alone and ultimately let the final buyer decide what they want to do to it. It was suggested that I would do best to either find a serious collector that would be interested or try to find a museum that would be interested. It was this discussion that had Jim giving me your information. I am hoping to try and find out more information about the drum and finding it a good home. Thanks again.

Matt


[Photos to follow.]