1950s Chinese "Lion Dance" Shigu Drum

Update 2022: This is now for sale again. Making room! It's lovely but big! It comes with two big bass beaters (not pictured) of good quality as well.

Update 2018: I've updated the photos. The guitars behind the drum should give you an idea of how large this is. Now back to the original post text, which I've updated here and there.

No offense to the wonderful percussion store in Brandon, VT (as of 2022: defunct) -- but we now have the most righteous drum in the area! I picked this up at the antiques mall in Quechee, where it was hiding in their basement "furniture spillover" area. I knew I needed it. You know I needed it, right? It's giant -- at 26" across the head and swelling to about 32" across its belly.

I'm not sure exactly what these drums are called but references online list them as "shigu" -- but you see them in Lunar New Year celebrations in where they're the main rhythm element of the "dragon dance" and "lion dance" teams. Considering that this has lovely paintings of Chinese-style lions (and firecrackers, and those strange fabric balls), I'm assuming it probably belonged to lion dancers, no?

The three-lions motif is repeated on either side of the drum.

The modern People's Republic began in 1949, so this has to date after that. It's obviously pretty old, but my guess is it could be from anywhere between the 50s and the 70s. I'll bet it's on the earlier end, though, considering the wear and tear and old hardware.

The "holes" in the lower part of the big head are for tensioning-up before tacking it on. Note the line of nails below the big brass "tacks" -- those are what initially held the head in place before the tacks were driven in.

The other side is in rougher shape picture-wise but it's still awesome.

Inside you can see the barrel construction (which was wrapped in gessoed canvas and then lacquered) and also some very strange springy-looking devices which turned-out to be snare/resonating noise-makers that apparently are only on the "lion dance" version of these drums. Curious!

The bamboo wrapping at the bottom is also held in-place with big tacks.