Now evaluate this bell...

Here's the first piece I've wondered about and would love to get feedback on. Just like the other evaluate bell post, I'll withhold my comments till I see whether this generates any interest. Besides age, authenticity, any thoughts on what this would have been used for... (BTW, it sounds beautiful, except for the one that has been broken and improperly repaired)

 

Nice photos!

 

It looks. like the bells used by acolytes during Mass. Sometimes called Altar bells. Especially since yours has little angels.

Like this:

 

AWESOME. Altar bells it is! Not sure how to post a link to a website yet, but here's a very similar one: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Altar_Bells_of_St._Damian_of_Molokai.jpg

That gives me something to go on, THANK YOU

 

Yes, for musical uses.

 

Used to be that when you heard the little bells you had to genuflect. With so many younger folks abandoning the Church, they decided to give old knees some rest and do away with it. At least in our Church they did.

 

Hi,
The old name was Sanctus Bells.
greg

 

They look fairly old, or at least lot older than the other bell. That so-called repair has to be 50 years old.

 

During the Catholic mass, altar bells are rung at the precise moment the bread becomes the body of Christ and again at the moment the wine becomes the blood of Christ. These two miraculous events happen during a rather long period of kneeling. The bells are meant to create a joyful noise and give thanks for the miracles taking place.

When I was a young girl, the bells seemed to ring just when I got tired of kneeling and would rest my bum on the edge of the pew seat behind me... causing me to believe the bells were an admonishment for my laziness, LOL!

 

They were!

 

Bluumz, that is SO funny! Believe it or not, I had the EXACT same experience - and the same reaction to it!!!

Meanwhile, my husband, who was an altar boy & thus had the job of ringing those bells, has talked of having to be nudged awake by the priest - actually, startled awake, just in time to do the ringing. (He says that way too often, all of the boys would nod off up there on the altar - especially if they were serving at early Mass - and the seemingly loud, sudden, & vigorous ringing of the bells often had to do with their abrupt return to sentience after having dozed off!)

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one, LOL!

I was a child of the 1960s/70s, before there were altar girls. I always wanted to be an altar server and considered it so unfair that girls were prohibited from participating. Hmmm, maybe if the Catholic Church had been more progressive, I would have stayed closer to it. As it is, I am now an agnostic.

 

Cool memories. My wife is Catholic, but I'm not, so my memories of being at mass are all of wondering what to do next, and looking at her to know when to sit down, stand up, etc.

So to date these I see very similar Sanctus bell in the link I showed above, which is from a Catholic church in Providence RI. But how does a church get its supplies? For the most part they are just passed down, but someone must have purchased it at some point in the past. Does anyone know where a church sources things like this?

The link about the bells says: "The Mission Church houses a reliquary with the altar bells of Saint Damien of Molokai and a 17th-century Spanish Colonial Tabernacle". Saint Damien was born in 1840 and died in 1889. How the bells made it to Providence from Hawaii or when isn't said. Nor where the bells came from originally.

Similar (but not as similar) bells are listed for sale at rubylane from a seller in Spain https://www.rubylane.com/item/1415055-g205/18th-Century-Bronze-Altar-Sacristy-Sanctus, described as "These beautiful Bronze Altar / Sacristy / Sanctus Bells date back to the 18th Centruy. They feature a beautiful little Angel / Cherub / Putti and baroque decorations on the handle." But do they know what they're talking about?

 

https://www.churchsupplies.com/store/bells.shtml

 

Thanks, those are the ones you can buy today. I guess they must have had similar mail-order suppliers 100 or more years ago?

 

Yes though you asked where a church sources things like this.

 

Hi,
My church in Brooklyn bought their new bells from Tiffany in the 1890s. Their older ones were purchased in the 1830s. I do not know who the manufacturer was at that time. The last time they were repaired was by Gorham in the 1940s.
greg

 

I was so conscientious, I never leaned against the seat. Actually, it was FON, Fear Of Nuns. My best friend used to bring a candy bar and as soon as she returned from Communion, she'd sneakily start eating it! And she was so popular no one ever would have believed she was doing something like that. I was convinced she would burn in hell.

 

Used to be a shop in Westminster when I was growing up that sold stuff like this. There was indeed a catalogue, and it included vestments. I think it's so sad that our oldest bell foundry - the one that made the Liberty Bell! - is to be no more.