Expert’s note: The present rain drum displays the typical marks of a later date than its predecessors from the Dong Son culture, including the twelve-ray star, elephant and snail decorations to the walls, and larger size. The naturally grown patina and extremely fine craftsmanship clearly point towards a dating in the 19^th century, or possibly even earlier.

The drum shows a central twelve-ray star medallion on the flat top encircled by concentric bands of decoration and with four groups of frogs piled on top of one another, the tapering body with further decorative bands and double-strap handles, a procession of three elephants in relief descending down one side, and four snails. The surfaces displaying an elegant mottled malachite-green patina.

Provenance: Austrian private collection, acquired in Myanmar circa 1930. Galerie Zacke, Vienna, 1994. A private collection in Vienna, Austria, acquired from the above. A copy of an expertise from Galerie Zacke, written and signed by Wolfgang Zacke, dated February 1994, and dating the present lot to the 19^th century, accompanies this lot.
Condition: Good condition with minor wear, small dents, nicks, scratches, casting flaws, soil encrustations, all commensurate with age and size. The bronze with a fine, naturally grown, mottled patina with rich malachite encrustations.

Weight: 28.2 kg
Dimensions: Diameter 66.5 cm, Height 49.9 cm

The drum is fitted with a modern glass top to serve as a side table. (2)

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 related examples illustrated in Sylvia Fraser-Lu, Burmese Crafts: Past and Present, Oxford University Press, 1994; and Pratapaditya Pal, Art from Sri Lanka & Southeast Asia: Asian Art at the Norton Simon Museum, Yale University Press, 2004; and Paul and Elaine Lewis, Peoples of the Golden Triangle, Thames & Hudson, 1984.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 21 March 2015, lot 1011
Price: USD 32,500 or approx. EUR 38,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A Southeast Asian bronze rain drum, 18th/19th century
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, the elephants, the twelve-rays star, and the size (52.6 cm).