Nice, Yep... I was really referring to the introduction of duco finishes in general.
Your comment that is was a "war years" drum; combined with that dark blue over light blue combination just made me think... Wow, that drum is painted exactly light the carrier based aircraft in world II. Dark blue looking down at the ocean, light blue looking up at the sky.
So I went digging to see when duco's hit the market... and for Slingerland, if I understood correctly, it was around 1936. That would match up with the onset of combat operations of carrier based aircraft (from England) and the development of the camo patterns they used.
Every artist has a source of inspiration... so I was just wondering what inspired the duco finish on drums. :)