Bronze drum tympanum Vietnam, Đông Sơn culture,... Lot 26

Bronze drum tympanum Vietnam, Đông Sơn culture, 5th-1st century BCE Bronze with archaeological patina, D. 69.2 cm This magnifique tray is richly decorated with several concentric registers separated by scrolls, adorned in the center with a twelve-branched star in relief between a peacock feather motif, around which are reserves decorated with geometric motifs (wolf's teeth, pointed circles), figures and waders in flight. Such ornamentation corresponds to bronze drums of the Heger I type, which are the oldest and belong exclusively to the Đông Sơn period, i.e. the last centuries BCE. The birdmen depicted in the main register represent dancers or warriors holding either weapons (spears, axes, crossbows) or musical instruments (khene, drums, rattles). The presence of air holes can be explained by the casting technique: "In Dong Son in particular, a process known as conke was used which consisted of inserting small round or rectangular pieces of raw metal (alloy or iron), known as "spacers", between the two walls of the mould to better control the thickness of the future drum and to ensure a regular progression of the boiling alloy" (Jacques de Guerny, Les Tambours de Bronze de l'Asie du Sud-Est). These holes are sometimes filled in or left as they are, as on the Ngọc Lũ drum (Hanoi, National Museum of Vietnamese History) or the Sông Đà drum (Paris, Musée Guimet).