the bottom rim does it have a small cut in it for this type of snare wire holder ?

YES!

So the snares were held at one end by that restraining plate.

How about the other end? Is there a tie off or something that went through the 2 small holes in the shell?

ODG:

Neat drum. The staggered tensioning makes this look almost like a George Stone snare, but not quite. While one end of the snares would have been held into the hoop snare gate by a little leather plate (already pictured in VM2000's post), the other end was probably held by a floating snare tensioner. These were usually held in place by two screws into the batter hoop, but your hoops don't show signs of this type of anchoring, your shell does. The confusion lies in the location of those two staggered holes in the shell. They seem to be located too close to the bearing edge, placing them under the fleshhoop of the head once it's in place. They should not be visable from the outside of the shell once the head and hoops are in place. I believe Leedy used a hoop mounted snare tensioner that was mounted with staggered screws. Also, there's no indication that these holes are on the top bearing edge of the shell as you describe; how do you know this is not the bottom edge of the shell? It's hard to tell in the picture, but there almost seems to be a snare bed in the bearing edge above these holes.

I know we've got a few members versed in this period, so I'll be curious to hear their take on this really interesting snare.

Is it possible the snare wires were mounted under the batter head?

This drum I believe is from a circus organ a kind of one man band machine.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTYCTw4QJAg[/ame]

WOW!

Bill, The lugs look very similar to the drum from the circus player instrument. Good spotting. The original head has marks on the outer surface that appear to have been made by the snares, so I suspect the snares went outside the head. Thanks for the inside mounted snare pic.

Mchair,

I think the snare head is opposite the two hoes because there is a depression in the shell on the opposite side which would allow a space between the rim and the shell for the snares to fit through. At least, that is my assumption. Could be wrong.

Also interesting, the heads barely pull down over the shell, so the 2 holes are still slightly exposed with the head in place, although there would not be any room for hardware to be mounted on the outside of the shell.

Thanks for checking out the details.

ODG

I think that the two staggered holes may have been for a carry hook on the drum. The drum was most likely used for marching at some point. The lugs look similar to some early Duplex drums.

Might be one of these:

https://www.google.com/patents/US1630461?dq=1630461&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAGoVChMIuar1gbKOxgIVF3-SCh0YkQss

Strange drum for sure.

I was going to say Duplex also due to the hexagonal rod nuts. But those are just "parts". Maybe a Wurlitzer drum? Regardless what brand it is...think of where that drum has been. Rough Riders on San Juan hill? John Phillip Sousa's concert orchestra? Very cool...

That's an original Craviotto