18th C Dutch bell

Someone wanted photos so I’ll share any that aren’t too large to be acceptable to the picky Antiquers server. I once had about 10 bronze cannons by Seest but they all sold in the auctions at Julia’s a few years ago. The auction catalogs including the “Springfield Arsenal” collection are still online if anyone wants that info. This bell’s clapper mounting broke off in use and the ugly repair you see was made. It could be restored but the unique repair doesn’t bother me at all so it stays as-is. 14” bell, bronze, 1769, maybe 80 lbs. I bought it in Brimfield, MA in the 1990’s.

Uh oh, all photos too big, gotta shrink ‘em somehow.

 

The cast-on text, cast in relief, is:

ME FECIT PIETER SEEST AMSTELODAMI 1769


(I was made by Pieter Seest in Amsterdam, 1769)

 

Thats lovely.

 

now that's an old bell !!!!

 

HOLY COPPER CLAPPER CAPERS!!!

 

say that 5 times fast.......if ya can...

 

‘Nuther pichur

Note how the iron clapper has deformed the bell where it strikes, over time. This old replacement clapper isn’t exactly correct for this bell since it has a pull eye at the lower end. This bell was originally intended to be rung by swinging the whole bell via a wood stock and axle to which the bell was firmly attached. The clapper with eye may indicate the bell was re-used in a position where the pull was more horizontal than the typical church-steeple setup. Even though the clapper is a replacement, it looks to have a bit of age to it. Judging by the larger deformation of the bronze exactly where it hits, it has been there for a good while. I think the clapper was blacksmith-made for that bell. I wish this bell could talk, would love to know the whole story. There’s a bit of a story about buying it but I don’t know if that’d be too interesting.

 

I could NEVER beat KoT's comment, but that's a NIFTY bell!!!!!!!!!

 

TELL US!!!!!
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please

 

Ok. Sometime in 1990’s I was at the huge, week-long antique market at Brimfield, Ma, on the last day when only one of the markets opened for the first time that week, think it was The Girls” that opens last. Each market has its own opening procedure and The Girls did it this way: All dealers would occupy their spaces in the AM but had to wait till a horn blows at noon to open and sell anything. Buyers had paid their admission and could mill around as they wished. I was an avid cannon collector back then and carried a bronze 30” cannon on a heavy lifting strap hung on my shoulder so people would know right off what I wanted. I’d go around to many of the as-yet unopened dealers at that market asking if they had brought any cannons and up until 11:00 everyone said no. At 11:00 I asked some young men who were ducking in and out of a box truck. The guy I asked said they didn’t have any cannons but they had a bell made by a cannon maker. He didn’t recall the name but said it was near the tailgate and since I’d shown interest he’d give me first refusal on it. So I sweated and paced back and forth for an hour until the whistle blew and the box truck’s rear door rolled up slowly, jerkily, and I was “on” the bell. The maker’s name was Pieter Seest and since I had several bronze cannons by him already but had never before seen one of his bells, the sale was inevitable. The price was higher than I expected and they weren’t interested in haggling, so I finally just shelled out the cash and hauled the bell out to the truck in the backyard-turned pay parking lot of “The Mean Guy” next door.