India Bells?

[ou8acracker2]

Ok the story behind this goes as such. My grandma bought a house back in 1950 and it was built in 1939. NO ONE has metal detected this yard and that I am sure of. So I started poking around and there were 8 small bells in a 10 foot radius of each other. 7 were brass and 1 is copper. Two have "India" etched - not stamped - etched into it. No dates or anything. The guy who owned the property built it...but his mother lived on that property before him and homesteaded it back in the 1900ish.

Anyone know what in the world these are? I am also in Central Florida and this was right by the beach on the Cape Canaveral/Cocoa Beach barrier Island.

 

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[grasshopper]

I found one a few weeks ago. It said "lucky charm" on the outside and was marked "3 Wahab Pl India". I found that there are many different variations. Still not sure of the date, I am guessing post-1900.

 

[ou8acracker2]

I cleaned them a bit more and now it turns out 2 are copper and the other 6 are bronze....

Still nothing but the two with INDIA scratched into them...Ill let them soak till morning and see what they look like.

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

My wife collects bells and she has four of those in 1 of hers it says bells of SARNA INDIA. That might be a starting point for you in your search for more info.

 

[vpnavy]

 

[treblehunter]

Very interesting, never know what is going to come out of that ground? Cool finds.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Well if they are good luck you just scored a whole lot!

 

[CRUSADER]

My wife collects bells and she has four of those in 1 of hers it says bells of SARNA INDIA. That might be a starting point for you in your search for more info.

good lead, many of these mid 20th C brass bells were made in Sarna, India. Tourist pieces. Not sure why there were so many in 1 spot.

 

[ou8acracker2]

Hm that is good to know! It is also interesting because I talked to my grandma and she said that the guy who owned it did not have a nickel to his name and he certainly would never have been able to travel to India haha

I think I will go over that property again next time it rains hard and see what trinkets I can find. She also pointed me to an oak tree where an really old fishing village (1890's used to hang around and such)...see if I can find the clothes line they used haha

 

[ivan salis]

you likely have a old Spanish catholic church bell set --they had a T shaped staff with small bells attached to the top bar ... that they used to shake a bit when the priest was blessing the wine and communion "host" bread ----it tinkled to let folks know to "look" at the alter because something "important" is occurring since in the old days the mass was in latin , which few people understood

I found some similar tiny bells at a old abandoned mid 1800's catholic church site and being catholic myself --I know about the "ring the bell" bit to alert the folks in church to pay attention to the blessing of the host --today its not done as much unless you got a "old school type priest "...my local preist has a cast brass 3 bell set with a "handle" built into it that holds the set together that the alter boy rings as the preist blesses the host..

 

[ivan salis]

oh by the way -- the spanish were well known to trade bells and other trade items with the indains and indains from around the cape area were well known for looting Spanish ship wrecks for anything of value they could haul away -- ITS HIGHLY LIKELY THAT THOSE BELLS PRE DATE THE HOUSE THAT WAS BUILT THERE , BY MANY YEARS === remember just because the house was built in 1939 -- doesn't mean that the all the items in the dirt came from it ...that dirt was there a long long time before 1939 and the cape had indains that lived there called the AIS ...and the cape area is a well known "ship trap" area because of the bad reefs in the area..

 

[sutphin]

RING MY BELL ELL ELL , RING MY BELL . COOL FINDS.

 

[46Wheat]

 

[Erik in NJ]

you likely have a old Spanish catholic church bell set --they had a T shaped staff with small bells attached to the top bar ... that they used to shake a bit when the priest was blessing the wine and communion "host" bread ----it tinkled to let folks know to "look" at the alter because something "important" is occurring since in the old days the mass was in latin , which few people understood

I found some similar tiny bells at a old abandoned mid 1800's catholic church site and being catholic myself --I know about the "ring the bell" bit to alert the folks in church to pay attention to the blessing of the host --today its not done as much unless you got a "old school type priest "...my local preist has a cast brass 3 bell set with a "handle" built into it that holds the set together that the alter boy rings as the preist blesses the host..

I feel its a very unlikely scenario of them being old church bells. Having the word India crudely etched in them, as Crusader said they are most likely tourist items made in India and probably date from the 50s - 60s. My Dad brought me back a set of temple bells (a bit different than these) also made for tourists back in the early 60s from that part of the world--they were all hanging on a piece of white string. I still have them somewhere.

 

[iloveshinythings]

This may be a wild guess, but as a Floridian, my grandmother used to have a set of bells hanging like that on a string. She used them to help her know when the wind was picking up (aka when they'd start chiming on the line) so she could take her laundry in before a storm. Maybe they were a nice, make-shift chime that time took back?

She also had a set hung on the door so she knew when it opened and closed when us little grandchildren were running all over the place.

Just some random ideas!