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Southeast Asia. The drum shows a central twelve-ray star medallion on the flat top encircled by concentric bands of floral, fish, and geometric decoration and with four groups of frogs piled on top of one another applied to the edge. The flaring body with a pair of double-strap handles and neatly decorated with bands of geometric, foliate designs, and a procession of three elephants. The rims are lined with finely braided bands.
Provenance: Galerie Hardt (established in 1976), Radevormwald, Germany, before 2020. Acquired by the gallery’s founder Peter Hardt (b. 1946) during his extensive travels in Asia, the first of which occurred during a formative world tour in 1973. Throughout his storied career, Peter Kienzle-Hardt organized countless exhibitions and participated in major international art fairs. He made many important contacts during this time and eventually met the Kienzle siblings, who shared his passion for Asian art and culture. A strong bond and deep friendship developed, ultimately leading to the creation of the Museum für Asiatische Kunst decades later in 2014. While the museum’s permanent exhibition predominantly comprised pieces from the Kienzle Family Collection, Peter Kienzle-Hardt supplemented it with objects from his own collection. Before his death in 2019, Horst Kienzle bequeathed his entire property to Peter and legally adopted him as his son, who has been using the name Peter Kienzle-Hardt ever since.
Condition: Good condition with minor wear, traces of use, and casting irregularities. Small dents, nicks, scratches, malachite and cuprite encrustations, flaking to the malachite patina, and some warping.
Weight: 9.5 kg
Dimensions: Height 51.5 cm
The Karen used to store their treasures in frog drums and bury them secretly in the ground, believing that they could take their possessions with them after death. Until the sixteenth century it was the custom of the Shan, Karen, and other tribes of eastern Burma at the death of a chief to bury his possessions, including his wives, elephants, weapons and other valued objects. The Karen, like other drum users in Yunnan and Vietnam, were known to bury their drums with their owners. Bayinnaung (1551-1581), one of Burma's greatest conquerors who in his heyday ruled over all of Burma (and a large part of Thailand) except for the Arakan coast, being a devout Buddhist forbade such funerary practices. As a compromise, token offerings were subsequently placed in graves. In place of a complete drum, a piece often in the form of a frog was cut off and buried.
The American missionary and naturalist Dr. Francis Mason wrote in 1868 that no Karen was considered rich without a frog drum, regardless of whatever his precious possessions might be. Anyone with money endeavored to turn it into a frog drum. Such drums were insurance against crop failure and famine, for they could readily be sold to buy food in times of hardship. They could be owned both by individuals or clans. A village with many drums was the envy of other villages and was often the cause of inter-tribal feuds to obtain possession of them. Drums were frequently beaten to heighten morale before Karen warfare, which generally consisted of a lightning raid of a rival village, killing the inhabitants as they tried to escape and then setting fire to the longhouse in which the village lived. A successful outcome was naturally a cause for celebration and further beating of the drums.
Karen bronze drums were cast by Shan craftsmen at Nwe Daung (Silver Mountain), the only recorded casting site in Burma, between approximately 1820 and 1889. Karen drums were cast by the lost wax technique; a characteristic that sets them apart from the other bronze drum types that were made with molds. A five-metal formula was used to create the alloy consisting of copper, tin, zinc, silver, and gold. Most of the material in the drums is tin and copper with only traces of silver and gold.
The importance of these drums to the Karen meant that the master craftsmen of the Shan people had to undergo certain purification rites before a drum could be cast at a time predetermined by astrological calculations. On the day before, they were required to undergo a cleansing ritual to invoke spiritual guidance during casting. After bathing, they made offerings of fruit and candles, then slept undisturbed that evening. When they arrived at the foundry the following morning, a circle was marked out in which the casting was to be performed. Within this area the wearing of footwear was prohibited. Swearing and the consumption of intoxicants were also forbidden until the work was completed. In addition to the various sub-groups of Karen, buyers from Laos, Thailand and other regions used to converge on Ngwedaung at the end of the rainy season in October-November to purchase drums to sell to various tribal groups such as the Tsa Khamu. During the late 19th century, non-Karen hill people, attracted to the area by the prospect of work with British teak loggers, bought large numbers of Karen drums and transported them to Thailand and Laos. Consequently, their owners frequently incorrectly identify their drums as being indigenous to these countries.
Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related bronze rain drum dated to the 19th century, 47 cm high, in the Victoria & Albert Museum, accession number IM.19-1915.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 16 September 2008, lot 584
Price: USD 5,250 or approx. EUR 6,700 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A bronze rain drum, Southeast Asia, 18th century
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, manner of casting, and size (53.3 cm).
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