This drum was initially an attic find around the Green Bay, WI area and later acquired by myself through an online auction house. No additional history or information pertaining to the drum is known outside of this; however, considering the condition of the drum, it doesn't appear that it saw much, if any play over its long 90+ years.
The drum features all of the typical specs outlined by the Leedy 'Standard' model option during the 1920s. This includes single flanged hoops sporting the "Leedy Indianapolis" stamp on the batter hoop, 8 tube lugs, slotted tension rods, Presto strainer; all plated in original Nobby Gold finish.
The Leedy Drum Company was known for producing unique and often very limited finishes in the 1920s and 30s. These can include both catalogued colors such as; Jade Green, Autograph of the Stars, Red Onyx, Rainbow Pearl as well as uncatalogued finishes including; Green Onyx, Stipelgold (yes, there are a couple examples of Stipelgold Leedy drums) and in this case, a mystery finish that we'll refer to as "Paisley Gold" for the sake of this write up.
There are two known examples of this particular Leedy finish on snares. The first first example belongs to Mike Curotto, which was previously referred to as "Antique Wallpaper", given the pattern and nature of the material, and the second being this featured drum only recently uncovered in October of 2021. It is also understood that there is an example of a bass drum that was seen however not documented to my knowledge as of this writing. The shell and wrap on these drums are what makes them so unique. The shell aligns with standard drums from this era in that the primary construction is of solid steam bent mahogany. However, the shell includes three interior maple reinforcement rings; two located at standard bearing edge positions and one band being centered in the shell. These reinforcement rings are not standard of any other Leedy model snares in 1920s - 30s that I've seen. The drum belonging to Mike Curotto has a different variation of this shell construction, giving each of these their own uniqueness. This leads me to believe that these two drums were surely experimentations in shell construction and potentially a test run of a new finish option.
The finish is very unique in that even the material itself is unlike anything I've seen in Leedy production. It has a wallpaper-like feel and texture with an embossed paisley style design. Luckily this drum was in outstanding condition when acquired thus not requiring any heavy-handed restoration as this embossed wrap would not lend itself very well to any sort of cleaning treatments outside of a simple gentle wipe-down. The drum was acquired 100% factory complete with Leedy stamped calf heads on both the batter and resonant sides and equipped with the original silk wire-wound snares.