have you seen these before?

[steviemac]

This is a Drouyn kit manufactured in Brisbane Australia sometime after 1940 from what I can tell. Can anyone enlighten me further on value or how rare? I have a bass and floor only....
cheers..

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k266/steviemac_01/Drouyn14floortom.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k266/steviemac_01/DrouynBasstop.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k266/steviemac_01/DrouynBassSide.jpg

[Bon]

I wanna find out more about Drouyn myself. Have seen a few kits over the years, usually with a nice wrap. Is there anything goodlooking under that black finish? Have also niticed that the 16 inch floor toms tend to have a seven lug arrangement. Is this the case here?
Bass drum looks like a 60's Premier, not Drouyn. Maybe refinished so they would match.
Drouyns seem to be well-regarded but rare. I have a 14x5 aluminium snare that sounds great but looks terrible
See it here (http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m219/zeebeepape/Snares/Drouyn1.jpg)

[O-Lugs]

Australian, huh? I wonder what kind of woods they used to make the shells. Australia has some really nice wood species to choose from.

[Antipodes]

I actually went to the Drouyn factory once in one of the Brisbane suburbs in the early 80s. They used to use Australian hardwoods (eucalyptus amongst others, from memory) which gave them quite "hard" sound I thought.

Even in Australia they were never a massive brand (age makes "unpopular" suddenly become "rare") - only Oz bands I can ever remember having seen play them were The Easybeats and Skyhooks. As an ex-pat Aussie I just remember us all being massively irritated that their presence meant there were huge tariffs on all the imported kits (i.e. everything else) thus making drums a really expensive affair back then.

I have seen Drouyn kits with their own lugs but the Premier thing doesn't surprise me. Australia was like a British suburb for years and Premier was one of the main imported kits pre Beatlemania after which you started to see the U.S. drums coming in in large numbers. I also remember Drouyn's lugs not being that sophisticated. Snare drum lugs wth a recess for a ridge on metal snare drums were also used on wooden snare drums (recess included) when there was no ridge. Tacky....

For comparative pricing check out ebay.com.au or The Trading Post.

David

[Blackdog]

Drouyn is still in operation today up in Brisbane. I think they only do special order/custom work although I'm not sure what. I've rang them a few times and always got the answering machine.
Apart from the Drouyn brand, they also made Dandy drums. The Dandy drums and very similar to the Drouyn. The wood is Queensland hardwood, I think they are 3 or 4 ply although hard to tell as mine (Dandy's) have a grey painted interior. The lugs and rims die cast, and there is a story that the lugs were made of brass shell casing after WW11.. mine look like brass, feel like brass. They are heavy drums.

The value isn't great. There's a kit for sale at the moment (www.tradingpost.com.au) 5 piece plus cymbals for $250 and another Dandy kit for $350.. so it's certainly not big bucks
Actually, I was sure it was $550.. maybe I should buy it myself!!!