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Source 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").
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
8532
label
Hand Bell with Two Shields
core
obj
dtoType
object
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
8532
sourceUrl
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.
date
1540-1580 (Renaissance)
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Metal
handbells
bells
imageCount
1
pageCount
1
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
14.4
height
9.5
dimensionsRaw
5 11/16 x 3 3/4 in. (14.4 x 9.5 cm) (h. x diam.)
Source extras
med
bronze
creator_ids
15387
33562
collection_ids
REN
exhibition_ids
none
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
7fd04288cf9a96f6