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This ornate bronze hand bell could be used to summon servants. The making of bells--mall ones, as well as large ones for bell towers--was a specialized craft. To produce a bell with a pleasing sound required an alloy with more tin and less copper than that used for statuary; this produced a metal that was more brittle and therefore more difficult to cast.Hand bells were often ornamented with motifs characteristic of a specific workshop. They could be "personalized" by adding the family's coat of arms to a prepared empty shield. Here, the two shields bear a millwheel, the emblem of the noble Venetian family Molini (meaning "miller").
Page data
- Page
- 1
- Source index
- 0
- Type
- photo
- Media ID
- 7fd04288cf9a96f6
- Size
- unknown
Document data
- ID
- 8532
- Core
- obj
- Type
- object
DTO data
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"id": "8532",
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"contentType": "object",
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"title": "Hand Bell with Two Shields",
"description": "This ornate bronze hand bell could be used to summon servants. The making of bells--mall ones, as well as large ones for bell towers--was a specialized craft. To produce a bell with a pleasing sound required an alloy with more tin and less copper than that used for statuary; this produced a metal that was more brittle and therefore more difficult to cast.Hand bells were often ornamented with motifs characteristic of a specific workshop. They could be \"personalized\" by adding the family's coat of arms to a prepared empty shield. Here, the two shields bear a millwheel, the emblem of the noble Venetian family Molini (meaning \"miller\").",
"provenance": "Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.",
"date": "1540-1580 (Renaissance)",
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"dimensionsRaw": "5 11/16 x 3 3/4 in. (14.4 x 9.5 cm) (h. x diam.)"
}
Context sent to Scholar
Document identity
{
"localId": "8532",
"label": "Hand Bell with Two Shields",
"core": "obj",
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"citationUrl": "https://purl.thewalters.org/art/54.208"
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Document source metadata
{
"id": "8532",
"sourceUrl": "https://purl.thewalters.org/art/54.208",
"contentType": "object",
"stage": "normalized",
"title": "Hand Bell with Two Shields",
"description": "This ornate bronze hand bell could be used to summon servants. The making of bells--mall ones, as well as large ones for bell towers--was a specialized craft. To produce a bell with a pleasing sound required an alloy with more tin and less copper than that used for statuary; this produced a metal that was more brittle and therefore more difficult to cast.Hand bells were often ornamented with motifs characteristic of a specific workshop. They could be \"personalized\" by adding the family's coat of arms to a prepared empty shield. Here, the two shields bear a millwheel, the emblem of the noble Venetian family Molini (meaning \"miller\").",
"provenance": "Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.",
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Document source extras
{
"med": "bronze",
"creator_ids": [
"15387",
"33562"
],
"collection_ids": [
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],
"exhibition_ids": []
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Page context
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