Really Cool Old Bell: ID Needed

[coinman123]

I asked about this bell when I found it back in early September but someone recently told me that to get a more accurate ID some other important thing are needed. I was told it was a horse harness Hames-bell, with an added hanger, that sounds perfect to me but now that I have more info on me let's see if anymore info can be given. It looks to be made out of brass with a high content of white metal, it may be made out of tombac too, for it looks like many of my tombac buttons.
I Cleaned it by using steel wool on the ugly corroded dirt color orange part of it, it is now the silver-ish color you see, on the clapper which had twigs and leaves engulfed in some corrosion, I used a hammer to make the corrosion vibrate enough and crumble off. Before I cleaned it there was no way this bell could ring, in fact, I did not even know that the hook and clanger were two pieces, and there was so much corrosion I could not even notice the round part of the bottom of the clapper

Also, I wanted to show you the display I made out of it in my room a few months ago using just a square nail from an 1828 cellar hole that burned down in around 1890.



Here is a video I made on how it sounds. I know the tone of sound can help with the ID of a bell, each bell type has it's own sound. (I just rushed and quickly put it together put it's ok)


Here are some new photos:


Thanks, Coinman123

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[ARC]

Garden bell.
Really old and cool one.
How you know it was "land" based bell ...
Is by the "clapper".
If it were for sea... would all be brass or bronze.
Sea was ALWAYS bronze.
All of it,,, all parts.

 

[tamrock]

Victorian Shopkeeper's Bell, Garden bell is good also Maybe early 20th century IMO...You can still get them. I'd rig that up to my door. Kind of a neat sound for a door entry. Chuck Berry called it his "Ding A Ling"

 

[ARC]

Oh one more "tidbit" about bells...
Always buy em if they look old.
Collectors everywhere.
Small ones... women love.
Big ones... men love.

AND FYI...
Bells are not cheap...
Good ones are very expensive.
try a search for "fog bell" heh
Even new today from West Marine... they are bucks.

 

[coinman123]

Oh one more "tidbit" about bells...
Always buy em if they look old.
Collectors everywhere.
Small ones... women love.
Big ones... men love.

AND FYI...
Bells are not cheap...
Good ones are very expensive.
try a search for "fog bell" heh
Even new today from West Marine... they are bucks.

I think that may bell may have been repurposed into a garden bell from some old bell. It appears that the clapper and hanger are made in a totally different way from each other.

Here is what people said on my older post:
"The hanger has been replaced with a crude loop; the clapper may be original, though looks to me to me out of scale enough to have been scavenged"

Any ideas on when it is from?

 

[ARC]

The bell and clapper could have separate pasts...
But here is problem with that...
Notice the way the "shank" is "curled"...
This would have been done in production...
"cleanly"...
Notice that the curled shank is still... perfect.
Try to grab the inside shank...
Now try imagining bending that outright/stretched enough to add "new clapper"
Now imagine closing said shank...
There would be tell tale signs of this process...
A shank like that rarely goes "back" into its original position.
UNLESS a skilled "bell repairman" did it ... heh
Hardly worth it...
"joe blow" would have grabbed the old "needlenose" and give a good "whirl" heh
And we would see evidence of this.
Besides... most bells are found either...
#1. with clapper
#2. without.
It is my GUESS that this clapper is with its original bell.
Your mark(s) if any would be on the actual clapper... which appears to be rusted quite well.
As afar as a date ? heh
Sheesh... could be from Colonial... to 1930's but without marks? who really will know.
Bell expert I am not.
Jackass of very old stuff I am.