VTG Guangxi Bronze Drum With Wooden Base & Striker And Box Green Patina
Item History & Price
Reference Number: Avaluer:227243 | Region of Origin: China |
Type: Box | Primary Material: Bronze |
Color: Green | Original/Reproduction: Vintage Reproduction |
* High quality bronze drum
* Wooden display stand
* Bronze striker
* 3 demensional frog figures
* Description plaque
* Hallmarked
* Original box (tear on box flap)* 3" Diameter
Bronze drums are one of the most important... archaeological artifacts to be found in southern China and Southeast Asia. Their use by many ethnic groups in that area has lasted from prehistoric times to the present. Northern Vietnam and southwestern China (especially Yunnan Province and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region) are the two areas where the majority of bronze drums have been discoveredThe decoration of the bronze drum is a major field of controversy between Vietnamese and Chinese scholars. Decoration is important because it is believed to reflect the social and spiritual life of the people who invented and used the drum and, thus, can help determine its ethnic and geographical affiliations. The most popular motifs on the early drums (Heger's first two types plus the Wanjiaba) include various species of birds and other animals, as well as boats, shining entities, and geometrical lines.There are small three-dimensional animals on the face of some Dong Son (Shizhaishan) drums and other types of drums which archaeologists have argued are either frogs or toads (see photo's). Chinese scholars argued that they were frogs and explained them as decorations without special meaning, or something related to the ceremony of rain-seeking, or the frog-worshipping custom of the ancient Yue people of southern China, a group believed to be related to the ancient Viet people. Edward Schafer agreed that the animals were frogs, "for the drum embodied a frog spirit---that is a spirit of water and rain--and its voice was the booming rumble of the bullfrog." He retold a story of the Tang period recorded in a Chinese source to show that the drum could even take the form of a living frog. According to the story, a frog pursued by a person leaped into a hole, which turned out to be the grave of a Man (barbarian) chieftain containing a bronze drum with a rich green patina, covered with batrachian figures. The bronze drum was believed to be the reincarnation of the frog.Vietnamese scholars initially agreed that the animals were frogs in the 1970s, but later interpreted them as toads because "a widely known popular saying in Vietnam calls the toad 'the uncle of the heavenly god' and maintains that rain will inevitably fall when the toad raises his head and croaks.