■38 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
April, 1914 
Old Hand-Bells 
By Elizabeth Lounsbery 
Photographs by T. C. Turner 
HE diversified use of bells is as extensive as 
their size is varied, when one compares the 
tiny bells used in jewelry, on animals’ col- 
lars, and the many other uses to which they 
are applied, to the great bells of the world, 
the largest of which, the “Czar Kolokol, 
cast in 1733 in Russia, is said to weigh 440,000 pounds. It 
is supposed that this bell was never hung, and is now used as 
a chapel in the Kremlin in Moscow. 
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and 
even before in England, bells, except when used in a belfry 
or for a purpose where they were not seen, were made In 
curious shapes, usually in that of the human form, typi- 
fying well-known characters in the history of the country. 
The brass bells Illustrated are reproductions of some of 
these old bells now found in the English museums and 
ranging from three to six inches in height, representing a 
late eighteenth century court lady; Queen Elizabeth at an 
advanced age and again as a younger woman; a Dutch 
fisher-girl; a lady of the time of George IV; Anne Boleyn 
in the court dress of Henry VIII; still another type of 
bell in the Syrian merchant with his curious frock, and an 
1830 example with the poke bonnet and characteristic 
dress. The clapper in most instances is composed of the 
human feet and forelegs. Bells of this sort are well adapted 
for both bedside and tea-table use. 
