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Antique Southeast Asian Rain Drum
A large and exceptionally beautiful bronze rain drum measuring 60 cm in diameter with a uniform deep green native oxide patina. This style is characteristic of drums from the Northern Vietnam and Lao region. It's decorated with fish, birds, flowers, and other aquatic life arranged in many concentric bands that represent ripples in a pond. A twelve-point star occupies the center while four case bronze frogs stand along the periphery The last band on the edge of the drum is in the shape an intertwined rope. The sides of the drum are equally decorated with similar images along with two pairs of double ‘rope’ handles for hanging the drum from rope. The entire drum including the frogs and handles is cast as a single piece using the lost-wax method. Rain drums
date
back as far as 500 B.C. to the Dong Song Culture in the North
of
Vietnam and have probably been made ever since. The style here
is often
attributed to somewhere between to 13th to 17th century.
Images
from
the National Museum of Vietnam in Hanoi
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