This drum has an uncut, full-height, grain-painted body with a truly great, central panel consisting of an oval cartouche with a dynamic American eagle holding a flowing E PLURIBUS UNUM ribbon in its beak, and clutching a United States red, white and blue shield in front of its chest with one claw, while the other holds an arrow lower down on the viewer’s left. The eagle is painted in browns, grays, and white, with a little black and some red for the tongue. The brush strokes defining the feathers are very long and flowing, accentuating the stretching of the eagle’s body toward the viewer’s right. Overhead the arc of a sunburst glory is rendered in red, orange and yellow, and the artist notably decided to keep his design crisp by dispensing with the usual band of gray, rolling clouds below it, letting its undulating lower edge just suggest them. The cartouche has a narrow white edge and an inner border of 20 six-pointed stars. The central ground was likely light blue and now has the pleasant, muted, slightly greenish hue common from the age of the paint and varnish.

The drum measures about 17 by 17 inches. The shell overlap is secured by two vertical rows of brass tacks, between which more tacks are arranged in two concentric circles around the vent hole, with a horizontal diamond or cross of five tacks above and below. A few tacks are missing from the straight rows. The others are all in place. The paint is very good, showing expected cracquelure and some rubs, but just minor losses as shown in our photos. The only in-painting we see was to some of the grain next to the shell overlap.

The rope, tighteners and heads are correct replacements by a competent conservator. The rims appear to be the originals and in very good shape, though likely repainted at some point. The bottom shows rim shows wear the edge from sitting on a floor, like many antique drums with attractive paint, suffering the indignity of being used as a table after its useful military life was over. (We see a few thin bits of red at the upper edge of the body near the flesh hoops that likely rubbed off from a red board used as a top.)

The interior retains fragments of a rectangular label showing a few large letters and the words “wholesale and retail” at top and an ink notation at bottom. We have not been able to match the paint or the label with a specific maker to our satisfaction.

A date of 1835 seems about right for this drum, though it could be a bit earlier. The star count would place it 1818-1819, but such things are subject to artistic license and esthetic concerns. (We note the artist sacrificed the second “U” in “UNUM” in the ribbon, for instance, and seems to have equipped the eagle with just one arrow and a somewhat scraggly olive branch with three blossoms, showing he was rather focused on the eagle.) In any case, it is unlikely to be much later and is a wonderful piece of folk art as well as decorated military Americana, to use William Guthman’s term in his 1966 Magazine Antiques article. The painters decorating military drums, canteens, helmets, and other gear for the “elegant elite” of American militia were the same artists decorating furniture, doing wall painting, painting signs, etc. That article opened a lot of eyes among collectors and museums, stressing the intersection of art, history (both social and military,) patriotism, and sheer eye-appeal pieces like this offer. This is a great example that would hold its own in any collection or display.  [sr][ph:m]

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