Millereau Paris Antique French Tambourine Tambour De Basque 12in C1879-1911

Details

Description

Tambour de basque by Millereau of Paris, the counter-hoop struck MILLEREAU, BREVETÉ, 66 RUE D'ANGOULÊME. PARIS. Circa 1879 to 1911. … Read more Tambour de basque by Millereau of Paris, the counter-hoop struck MILLEREAU, BREVETÉ, 66 RUE D'ANGOULÊME. PARIS. Circa 1879 to 1911. 12 in diameter, 2 in deep.

The shell is pierced with six slots, each carrying a pair of metal jingles on a wire pin and framed on the outer face by a painted gilt oval. Between the slots the shell is decorated in gilt with a standing figure playing a tambour de basque, a lyre among foliage, and floral sprays. The ground is a strong orange-red laid directly on the wood, with the gilding applied over it.

The counter-hoop is blackened ferrous metal, drawn up by a screw tensioner against bracket lugs set around the lower edge. Breveté is the French term for patented, and on a drum hoop it denotes the tensioning system.

The date rests on the address rather than on style. François Millereau founded his Paris workshop in 1861, having trained with Besson, and moved the firm to 66 rue d'Angoulême in 1879. It stayed at that address until 1911, when it moved to 15 rue Gambey. The firm passed to Herman Schoenaers, who had married Millereau's daughter, and later instruments are marked Schoenaers-Millereau; it was sold to Selmer in 1930. This hoop carries the Millereau name alone at the rue d'Angoulême address, which places it inside that thirty-two year occupancy.

Millereau is known principally as a brass maker. Percussion from the workshop is met with far less often than its cornets and saxhorns.

The vellum head is absent. What is offered is the painted shell with its jingles, counter-hoop and tensioning hardware.

12 in diameter. 2 in deep.


CONDITION

The head is missing. No fragment of skin remains at the hoop. The shell, the jingles, the counter-hoop and the screw tensioner are all present.

Paint loss runs throughout. The vermilion is crazed across the whole shell and has flaked away in patches, with one loss along the grain beside the standing figure where a splinter of surface wood has lifted. The gilding is rubbed back to the red ground on the raised edges of the pierced ovals and over the high points of the figures.

The metal hoop is pitted and spotted with corrosion, and its blackened finish has broken up along much of its length.

The jingles are present in every slot and swing freely on their pins. The shell is true, with no split through its depth and no opening at the lap joint. The screw tensioner turns.


DETAILS

Diameter — 12 in (30.5 cm)
Depth — 2 in (5 cm)
Jingle slots — eight, each with a pair of metal jingles
Hoop — blackened ferrous metal, screw-tensioned, untested
Maker — Millereau, Paris
Mark — struck on the hoop: MILLEREAU, BREVETÉ, 66 RUE D'ANGOULÊME. PARIS.
Decoration — hand-painted gilt on a vermilion ground
Head — absent
Period — circa 1879 to 1911, from the firm's documented occupancy of that address
Sold as — one tambour de basque, head lacking See less