51/86

This is a clucket sheep bell made of iron and lacquered with brass to improve the note. It has straight sloping sides and two staples on the crown. The bell was given to the donor by an old Oxfordshire shepherd called Bob Green and had been in the family for over 100 years.

1 clucket bell: metal [iron, lacquered with brass]; good condition

Citation in publication [H. J. Massingham, 'Country Relics' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939)] – 'But I have five other bells, all from Oxfordshire, which break through the orthodox canons... the others are all of the clucket type, being 5 1/2 in. long at the shoulder and only 4 in. at the mouth. Yet there is no question but that they are of very great age, much older than any of the others. They are of gun-metal with great clappers ("clippers" in Sussex) headed with studs like those on Gothic church doors, and were given me by a shepherd of 84...' (p.131) [see also 51/87, 51/88, 51/90], MERL list / description [Massingham Collection, October 1989] – 'ACC. NO.: 51/86 // NAME: SHEEP BELL // NEG NO.: 35/92, 35/696 // STORAGE: '

1800-01-01 - 1849-12-31

Nineteenth century, first half