bell for horse harness?

BobinSouthVA

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Mar 1, 2007
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SE Virginia
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TheCannonballGuy said:
I agree with Broken Knee ...the item is known as a Crotal Bell. Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotal_bell for a detailed description, and http://www.weebling.com/artefact-pages/crotal_bells.shtml to see of photo of some examples.

Because they were attached to the animal's harness or collar by various means, the attachment-part of a Crotal-bell comes in various forms.

Sorry but it's not like any Crotal Bell/Rumbler/Sleigh Bell I have ever found, lost count of how many I have :wink:

It looks to have a secondary function (assuming it actually makes a ringing sound?), maybe a hook on a saddle/harness or :dontknow:

PS. If not a traditional Crotal, maybe some kind of strange US attachment for a sleigh type bell?? But its the first one posted on here like it :icon_scratch:
 

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CRUSADER said:
TheCannonballGuy said:
I agree with Broken Knee ...the item is known as a Crotal Bell. Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotal_bell for a detailed description, and http://www.weebling.com/artefact-pages/crotal_bells.shtml to see of photo of some examples.

Because they were attached to the animal's harness or collar by various means, the attachment-part of a Crotal-bell comes in various forms.

Sorry but it's not like any Crotal Bell/Rumbler/Sleigh Bell I have ever found, lost count of how many I have :wink:

It looks to have a secondary function (assuming it actually makes a ringing sound?), maybe a hook on a saddle/harness or :dontknow:

PS. If not a traditional Crotal, maybe some kind of strange US attachment for a sleigh type bell?? But its the first one posted on here like it :icon_scratch:

yeah I posted it here because it didn't look like any of the crotal bells I've seen.

Doesn't make any sound now, whether it ever did I don't know ???
 

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As various Crotal-bell photos show, many of them (especially the small ones) do not have an open slit across the bottom.

As various photos also show, some Crotal bells have four small-ish holes/openings, which spaced equidistantly around the roughly ball-shaped body. So does the brass/bronze ball-shaped item found by BobInSouthVA.

I'd say the most important of the defining characterists of Crotal-bells is that the "dinger" (usually a small metal ball) is enclosed within the bell's body -- the "dinger" cannot be removed from within the bell's body without splitting the body open.

It is possible that an uncommonly small (less than 3/4-inch) Crotal-bell's even-smaller "dinger," if it was a 1/4-inch iron ball, could rust into bits small enough to come out the side-holes.

Bob, is your 4-holed brass/bronze ball empty, or is there a "dinger" inside it?
 

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TheCannonballGuy said:
As various Crotal-bell photos show, many of them (especially the small ones) do not have an open slit across the bottom.

As various photos also show, some Crotal bells have four small-ish holes/openings, which spaced equidistantly around the roughly ball-shaped body. So does the brass/bronze ball-shaped item found by BobInSouthVA.

I'd say the most important of the defining characterists of Crotal-bells is that the "dinger" (usually a small metal ball) is enclosed within the bell's body -- the "dinger" cannot be removed from within the bell's body without splitting the body open.

It is possible that an uncommonly small (less than 3/4-inch) Crotal-bell's even-smaller "dinger," if it was a 1/4-inch iron ball, could rust into bits small enough to come out the side-holes.

Bob, is your 4-holed brass/bronze ball empty, or is there a "dinger" inside it?

I'll try and get an answer to that. the holes are pretty small, I was having trouble getting the dirt out.

I'll work on it a bit and see what I can discover.
 

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BobinSouthVA said:
yeah theres a dinger in there :icon_thumleft:

ok now we established it has an iron pea, we at least know it is some type of bell. Next we need someone to come up with a similar one with the long rod instead of a loop? Its the first one I have seen anywhere :thumbsup:
 

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Looking closely at the photo... it looks there's a square-nail stuck into a roundish hole in the bell. I seem to see a small gap where the square-nail (or whatever it is) goes into the bell. Perhaps the bell's original shank broke off, and somebody (long ago) was monkeying around with it. I've occasionally seen crotal bells with a broken-off loop/shank.
 

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TheCannonballGuy said:
Looking closely at the photo... it looks there's a square-nail stuck into a roundish hole in the bell. I seem to see a small gap where the square-nail (or whatever it is) goes into the bell. Perhaps the bell's original shank broke off, and somebody (long ago) was monkeying around with it. I've occasionally seen crotal bells with a broken-off loop/shank.

here are some closer shots of the top and bottom. It looks like the post is intended to be there in some of the shots and questionable in one of them. the lines of the post line up with the split in the metal toward the holes.
 

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Could this be a shopkeepers door bell?
 

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Tn Gizmo said:
Could this be a shopkeepers door bell?

not a bad idea, as I'm sure that had it been horse related I would have had at least 1 by now.
 

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CRUSADER said:
Tn Gizmo said:
Could this be a shopkeepers door bell?

not a bad idea, as I'm sure that had it been horse related I would have had at least 1 by now.
What makes you say that? some things are made out of necessity and not mass produced.
And maybe it was only made here? :icon_thumright:
Broken Knee
 

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Broken knee said:
CRUSADER said:
Tn Gizmo said:
Could this be a shopkeepers door bell?

not a bad idea, as I'm sure that had it been horse related I would have had at least 1 by now.
What makes you say that? some things are made out of necessity and not mass produced.
And maybe it was only made here? :icon_thumright:
Broken Knee

He says that because he has found practicly every button, buckel, and bell you can imagine. Lives in one of the oldest, and most prolific maunfacturing centers of the world.

Where it was made I wouldn't venture to guess, but a pretty safe assumption it was not, as you say, mass produced.

By the way, because of all this I think it is a great little find.

This a good crotal bell site. particularly for dating the different types. I found one of the sheet metal types, and thought at the time it was modern "junk".

http://www.ukdfd.co.uk/pages/crotal-bells.html
 

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Rick (Nova Scotia) said:
Broken knee said:
CRUSADER said:
Tn Gizmo said:
Could this be a shopkeepers door bell?

not a bad idea, as I'm sure that had it been horse related I would have had at least 1 by now.
What makes you say that? some things are made out of necessity and not mass produced.
And maybe it was only made here? :icon_thumright:
Broken Knee

He says that because he has found practicly every button, buckel, and bell you can imagine. Lives in one of the oldest, and most prolific maunfacturing centers of the world.

Where it was made I wouldn't venture to guess, but a pretty safe assumption it was not, as you say, mass produced.

By the way, because of all this I think it is a great little find.

This a good crotal bell site. particularly for dating the different types. I found one of the sheet metal types, and thought at the time it was modern "junk".

http://www.ukdfd.co.uk/pages/crotal-bells.html
Rick,That is a good site. I wasn't trying to knock Crusader. I was trying to say maybe it was made here and if that is the case then it's something he wont find an exact example of? HH
Broken Knee
 

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