John G. Pike Civil War Militia Drum
Priced at $1,990 on http://www.invaluable.com/buy-now/very-rare-john-g.-pike-civil-war-militia-drum-c624d4f821
Description: Remarkable Antique Civil War Drum |
This very rare Drum has the original stenciled decoration | The Drum is
of folk art militia style and bears manufacturer label of John G. Pike
of New York, circa 1860-80 | Drum is made of Rosewood and Birdseye Maple
and is in excellent condition for its age | Has original straps |
Measures 15″ high and 16 3/4″ diameter | A militia drum labeled by John
G. Pike [purportedly] is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is
illustrated at page 63 of American Musical Instruments in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lawrence Lubin, W.W. Norton & Co, 1985,
which states: “John G. Pike made one of the few attributable American
drums in the collection (Fig. 43). Inside its shell is Pike’s printed
label, listing his stock in trade: Premium Drums. Bass Drums! for brass
and martial bands-2 to 3 feet Head. SNARE DRUMS, the double or lined
stave drums, Made of Rosewood and Birdseye Maple, also the common maple
and Boy’s drums, of all sizes, kept constantly on hand. Repairing Done
on Short Notice. JOHN G. PIKE, Mitchell Street, Norwich, N. Y. Pike
(b. Plymouth, Chenango County, N.Y., December 23, 1815; d. Norwich,
N.Y., July 1, 1884) married Sarah D. Haight of neighboring Smyrna. It
was after their fifteen-year-old son’s death in 1853 that the couple
moved to Norwich, where they subsequently bought and sold several
parcels of land. On November 4, 1854, the Chenango Union reported the
opening in Norwich of the John A. King & Co. piano factory; Pike, a
leading partner, owned the building. The factory did not prosper for
long, and by 1867 Pike was pursuing the drum maker’s trade. This
occupation was not unrelated to another local industry, the making of
cylindrical wooden cheese boxes. New York was the nation’s leading
cheese-producing state after 1851, when Jesse Williams established
America’s first cheese factory in Rome, Herkimer County, forty-seven
miles north of Norwich. Upstate dairies used great quantities of
drum-like cheese boxes, and it is probable that more than a few “white
coopers” produced drums. At any rate, the front room of Pike’s East
Main Street house was furnished as a salesroom, with walls full of drums
hung from nails. As late as 1883 the Norwich directory listed Pike as a
drum maker, though failing health and poor vision had forced him to
curtail manufacture some years earlier. A respected Republican and
member of the Congregational church, Pike was known throughout town as
an able mechanic. The Museum’s Pike bass drum measures about
twenty-eight inches in diameter, a standard small size convenient for
parades. Its mahogany-colored hardwood shell has red hoops, and
blue-shaded gold decoration instead of tacks around the air hole. Pike
could have purchased ready-made the calfskin or cheaper sheepskin heads
he used, as well as the standard Italian hemp cords, tinned iron hooks,
and leather “ears,” but the shell and hoops he surely made himself,
carefully lapping the joints and reinforcing the laminated, stavebuilt
cylinder with internal ribs at top and bottom. James Robb, drummer of
Johnson’s Band in Norwich, had a Pike bass drum like this one, which he
claimed was the best he ever played.”
Dimensions: 15" x 16.75" x 16.75"
Artist or Maker: John G. Pike
Date: 19th Century
Source of all of the above text: http://www.invaluable.com/buy-now/very-rare-john-g.-pike-civil-war-militia-drum-c624d4f821
Source of all of the above text: http://www.invaluable.com/buy-now/very-rare-john-g.-pike-civil-war-militia-drum-c624d4f821
