1974.2.1

Collection type

Object

Description

Mechanical toy. Man beating a drum. [L.Ph 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 17/3/2005]

Long description

The upper half of a robed human figure painted black with bone eyes, on a rectangular hollow box (or stand) with a slightly larger solid base. On the box in front of the figure is a light brown wooden drum with movable bone 'eyes'. In each hand he holds a drumstick. When a handle at the back of the box is turned he beats the drum using each hand alternately, and turns his head from side to side.

Geographical reference

Japan

Asia > Eastern Asia > Japan

Kobe

Cultural groups

Japanese

Person

Field collector Oliver Robert Gurney's aunt

PRM source Oliver Robert Gurney

Date / Period

Date made: 1920-1929?, uncertain

Date collected

?1920s

Acquisition information

Donated: 1974

Materials and processes

Material Wood Plant, Material Bone, Material Pigment, Process Carved, Process Painted

Dimensions

Height 108 mm total, Length: max 80 mm base, Width: max 63 mm base

Object numbers

Accession number: 1974.2.1

Research and responses

Donor said that he had an aunt who worked as a nurse in Rangoon in the 1920s; she may have brought the toy back. He remembers them as a boy.

During a visit in 1995 the toymaker Robert Race saw this piece and suggested that it was not from Myanmanr as the original paperwork had suggested. He is pretty sure that it is from Kobe in Japan and was made for export from the nearby port in the 19th century. Pieces similar to this have been illustrated in a book by Leah Batten (?spelling). [JN]

Associated publications

This object was featured in the Museum’s ‘web gallery’ (‘Selected Objects from the Lower Gallery’) produced during the DCF-funded ‘What’s Upstairs?’ project, 2004–2006, with the following caption: ‘Toys with moving parts date back to ancient times. This man-and-drum toy was probably made in Japan in the nineteenth century. When a handle at the back of the box is turned, he beats the drum with each hand alternately and turns his head from side to side.

Search terms: Music, Toy and Game, Figure, Children and Childcare, Musical Instrument, Toy