I love this bell ... any guesses on maker?

[lenmac65]

Hunted an 1800s home site that is now woods. Dug my first crotal or sleigh bell having a design and maker's mark. The design and construction looks late 1700s to mid 1800s to me, but I am guessing 1850s or bit later for this one. It has a maker's mark of "o" with a star. Anyone know who that maker would be? The bell still rings, so my wife wants to hang it on our Christmas tree this year. Also found a few buttons, including a Boys Brigade button, which I have thus far been unable to find good information on. The Great Seal button is marked Horstmann, Philadelphia, and is likely WWI era or shortly thereafter. Thanks for checking out my post. Happy Hunting.

 

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[Professor of Engineering]

Awesome spoon!

 

[lenmac65]

Awesome spoon!

Thanks! It reminds me of an iced tea spoon or ice cream soda spoon. It looks silver plated, and has no markings. I have found many spoons, but none like this one. Wish I knew its age.

 

[Gene Mean]

Very nice bell! Quick Google search shows 1 inch bell is a "0". Not sure about the star.

 

[lenmac65]

Very nice bell! Quick Google search shows 1 inch bell is a "0". Not sure about the star.

Thanks. This bell also has a small 5 stamped on top, which I assume is a size classification. I have been hoping to find one of these for a long time, as I have seen so many nice ones posted here. I will look into the 0 reference you found.(Just learned a 5 denotes a bell with a 1 5/8 diameter, which seems about right for mine.)

 

[Digger RJ]

Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[Wildcat1750]

Beautiful Crotal Bell and good job getting it to ring. All of the intact ones that I've found still do once I loosened the little 'pea' in there!

 

[Trezurehunter]

I like that Crotal bell. Nice find.

 

[A2coins]

Awesome crota I have one just like it well a piece of one anyway .Great find and intact

 

[Erik in NJ]

Hi - It's a crotal bell, but it's more precisely known as a petal or horseshoe bell. Your bell (actually it's a rattle and not a bell per se) is an older bell, probably late 1700 to early 1800s as noted by the large sound holes. The sound holes on later bells (late 1800s) had small holes. Very nice finds and great bell. Do a Google search for "petal bell makers" for more info.

 

[lenmac65]

Hi - It's a crotal bell, but it's more precisely known as a petal or horseshoe bell. Your bell (actually it's a rattle and not a bell per se) is an older bell, probably late 1700 to early 1800s as noted by the large sound holes. The sound holes on later bells (late 1800s) had small holes. Very nice finds and great bell. Do a Google search for "petal bell makers" for more info.

Thanks for the info. I was hoping this "bell" was an older one, but thought I read somewhere that bells with four sound holes in the upper portion are 1850s or later. I will Google petal bell. Thanks again for the info. Very interesting.