Rare and Magnificent Bronze Drum Stand with Three Coiled Snakes. Photo courtesy Vanderven Oriental Art.

This type of object served as a base for a wooden pole drum. The three snakes, worked in low relief, coil around a tubular sleeve in which the wooden pole would have been placed. Various small exotic beasts and mythological creatures decorate top and sides of the drum stand. Animals such as a boars, crocodile, bats and stylized monkeys are depicted on a background of archaic meandering patterns. Three rings - originally used for carrying the base - are attached on the side.

In the warring states period, music was seen as a fundamental necessity for the high ranking nobles and rulers and it played an important role in court as well as burial rituals. Music was thought essential in restoring social and political order, as well as pleasing the ancestors and gods. The performance of music was seen as an external manifestation of the inner state of one’s being; touching the deepest chords of the soul and perfecting moral and spiritual power. Performing harmonious ritual music for the deceased, should therefore also have a benign effect on the deceased in their afterlife. Typical musical ensembles of this period comprised of bells, chimes and a pole drum. These orchestras are seen depicted on Eastern Zhou vessels and a very elaborate music ensemble, including a pole drum was found in tomb of the Marquis Yi in Hubei.

There are only a small number of comparable drum stands from the Eastern Zhou and Warring States periods. A very similar one, also cast with three serpents, can be found in the collection of the Shanghai Museum. A drum stand decorated with two coiled mythological dragon-snakes, was exhibited by Eskenazi (New York) in 2000.

Literature: R. Jacobson, Celestial Horses & Long Sleeve Dancers, Minneapolis 2013, p.48 & 49
T.C. Lai & Robert Mok, Jade Flute: The Story of Chinese Music, New York, 1981, p.17
Jessica Rawson, Treasures from Shanghai: Ancient Bronzes and Jades,

Exhibition Catalogue The British Museum, London, 2009, pl. 3p.52-59
Alan Thrasher, Chinese Musical Instruments, New York, 2000, p.17

Vanderven Oriental Art. MasterArt at TEFAF 2014 on stand 814. 14-23 march 2014 - http://www.masterart.com/