What a grave drum is
A grave drum is a metal case with a glass cover that held a gift for the deceased, usually a wreath of metal leaves and porcelain flowers or one of glass beads. The earliest date from around 1850; placing them on graves stopped after 1975. About 130 such cases stood in Drenthe’s cemeteries.
What is on display
Alongside early cases and cases from children’s graves is one for a French soldier killed in the First World War, containing a photograph, a bead wreath and part of his uniform jacket. There are also German and French bead wreaths, pictures of the workshops where wreaths were made, and a display of the stamps and dies used for metal petals.
The workshop
The museum and restoration workshop share a building. The foundation uses tools, old factory catalogues and documentation. Missing metal petals are reproduced with stamps and dies and painted; porcelain flowers are shaped and fired by hand. Restored cases have returned to their places in Drenthe (24), Friesland (19), Belgium (18) and Zeeland (13), among others.
Heritage and a book
The foundation began in 2015 as Stichting tot behoud van de Drentse Graftrommels and joined the Netherlands’ Intangible Heritage Network on 20 January 2024. Leo and Pieke van Doorn-Witteveen wrote De grafkrans als funerair erfgoed in Nederland (€22.50 including postage). A second visitor room in the chapel of Goor’s municipal cemetery opens free of charge on the first Sunday of each month from April to September, 2–4 p.m.