Administration The "Ovidiu Oana" private bell collection
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Go up to the albums list Album 8. Religious bells (15 images, size 4.59 MB)
- Name:		Pommerania
- Description: 	Bronze bell with clapper and wooden support. Scale 1/30 from the original
- Total high:	9,8 cm;  3,858 inches; - (with crowne)
- Bells H:	 8,3 cm;  3,267 inches;
- base Ø:	10,5 cm; 4,134 inches

- Country of origin: 	Austria
- Acquired:	Acquisition from St. Stephan Cathedral – Vienna, 2004
Austria - Pommerania bell
- Name:		Four Apostles bell
- Description: 	Handle bronze bell with clapper. Around are reliefs with name and symbols of St. Johannes, St. Matevs, St. Marcvs, St. Lvcas.
- Total high:	 9,0 cm; 3,543 inches;
- Bells H:	  5,0  cm; 1,968 inches;
- base Ø:	 6,2 cm; 2,441inches

- Country of origin: 	Belgium
- Acquired:	 Gift from a friend, Mr. Victor Todica.
Belgium - Four Apostles bell
85.	Name:		Bell with lyra support
- Description: 	bronze bell with an interesting support, both gold plated.
- Total high:		40,0 cm; 15,75 inches;
- Bells H:		9,0 cm; 3,54 inches;
- base Ø:		10,0 cm; 3,937 inches;

- Country of origin: 	India
- Acquired in Croatia as a gift for my 2005 birthday, coming from  my syster’s & my brother’s family
India - Bell with lyra support
clopot de bronz incizat cu motive florale si portretul lui Visnu
India - Panjabi bell
According to 14th-century legend, two mischievous creatures called imps were sent by Satan to do evil work on Earth. After causing mayhem elsewhere in Northern England the two imps headed to Lincoln Cathedral where they smashed tables and chairs and tripped up the Bishop. An angel appeared in the Angel Choir and ordered them to stop. One of the imps sat atop a stone pillar started throwing rocks at the angel whilst the other imp cowered under the broken tables and chairs. The angel turned the first imp to stone allowing the second imp to escape. The imp that turned to stone, the Lincoln Imp, can still be found, frozen in stone, sitting atop his stone column in the Angel Choir.

I am pleased to offer here a delightful bronze bell derived from this historic legend. This is a nicely preserved example with a dark patina, complete with its original handle and clapper, cast in 17,th or 18,th century.
The bell is 2-5/8" in diameter and stands 4" in height. It weighs nearly nine ounces!
Lincoln imp
A bronze bell, acquisition from Brasov
Six Dragons Bell
82. Name:	St. Peter's bell
- Description:	Bronze bell with wonderfull reliefs representing apostles.  The first tier represents the serpents. The hanging objects on the middle tier above the apostles are hanging cathedral lamps, signifying spiritual lights.
 The clapper is also in bronze and termination is an emisphere.
- Total high:		21,6 cm; 8,503 inches;
- Hanger:		10,2 cm; 4,016 inches;
- Bell H:		11,4 cm; 4,488 inches;
- base Ø:		10,2 cm; 4,016 inches;

- Country of origin: 	Unknown
- Acquired:		Acquisition from antiquarium
St. Peter's Bell
- Name:		Prier bell (Ghanta)
- Description: 	Bronze bell with crone on a handle top.
Tibet - driblu ( or big ghanta)
clopot de bronz cu reliefuri specifice.
manerul este o jumatate de dorje - obiect de cult specific tibetan cu portretul lui Buddha
cadou de la naiada - Craciun 2007
Tibet - Driblu (or middle ghanta)
- Name:		Prier bell
- Description: 	Bronze bell with crone on a handle top.
- Total high:	14,5 cm; 5,708 inches;
- Bells H:	   5,6 cm; 2,205 inches;
- base Ø:	  7,2 cm; 2,834 inches;

- Country of origin: Tibet
- Acquired:	Acquisition.
Tibet - driblu (or small ghanta)
- Name:		Tingsha Ashtamangala 8 auspicious
                     (8 symbols of happiness)  or "Golden Asta Mandala Cymbals"
- Description: 	Famous Tibetan bells in bronze.It is also known as “Ashtamangala 8 Symbols of Happiness Cymbal Bells”
- Bells H:	 2,2 cm; 0,866 inches;
- base Ø:	6,8 cm; 2,677 inches;

- Country of origin: Tibet - Hand cast by Tibetan artisans using methods passed down from gererations, these prayer chimes have been used for centuries by Tibetan Buddhists to prepare for meditation.
- Acquired:	Gift from my daughter Cora-Cosmina

Old Tibet ritual instrument Silver Armored 8 Auspicious Symbols Bell 
This is Old Tibet Tibetan Buddhist ritual instrument Silver Armored 8 Auspicious Symbols Bell. As you view in the images, it was Very nicely finished and complete with many fine details. Very particular and infrequent. It is a great piece of valuable collection or a very good present. Our items are guaranteed to be authentic and bear the identification. If you are not completely satisfied, you may return your purchase for a full refund.
The bell is the most common and indispensable musical instrument in tantric Buddhist ritual. Gods and apotheosized lamas alike hold this popular symbol, along with the thunderbolt in their hands. The bell has an elemental function and its sound, like those made by the trumpet and the drum, is regarded as auspicious; it is said to drive away evil spirits. Like the church bell, the Buddhist hand bell sends the message to evil spirits that they must stay away from the consecrated area where the ritual is being performed. As already mentioned, in ritual the bell is paired with the vajra. The vajra represents the compassion of the Buddha, the masculine principle; and the bell represents wisdom, the female principle. To achieve enlightenment, those two principles must be combined. The bell is visualized as the Buddha's body, the vajra is visualized as his mind, and the sound of the bell is visualized as Buddha's speech in teaching of the dharma.
8Auspicious Symbols 

The Golden Wheel: The wheel is an ancient Indian symbol of creation, sovereignty, protection, and the sun. The six-spoked wheel was associated with Vishnu and was know as the Sudarshana Chakra. The wheel represents motion, continuity and change, forever moving onwards like the circular wheel of the heavens. 

The Banner of Victory : The victory banner originates from the victory banner that was a military standard carried in Indian warfare. It was adopted as the symbol of Buddha's enlightenment. In Tibetan Buddhism it is said to symbolise the methods for overcoming the defilements-the development of knowledge, wisdom, compassion, meditation, and ethical vows.

The Right-Turning Conch: The conch shell is derived from ancient Indian stories that describe how heroes of mythical warfare carried a large while conch shell. It is a symbol of power and sovereignty, the sound believed to banish evil spirits, scare away harmful creatures and avert natural disasters. Buddhism adopted it as a symbol of religious sovereignty and an emblem that spreads the truth of dharma. 

The Golden Fish :The golden fish symbolise happiness, due to their freedom in water, and fertility and abundance, due to their ability to multiply quickly.. The symbol is a common auspicious symbol in the Hindu, Jain and Buddhist traditions, which originated as being a symbol of the two main sacred rivers the Yamuna and Ganges in India, which represent the lunar and solar channels. In Egypt the pair of fishes symbolised the River Nile, and early Christianity adopted the symbol as an emblem of Christ.

The Endless Knot :The endless knot overlaps without a beginning or an end, symbolising the Buddha's endless wisdom and compassion. It indicates continuity as the underlying reality of existence.

The White Lotus :The lotus is the symbol of purity. It is able to grow and blossom from the muddy water, and therefore is a symbol of divine generation. The lotus is used to depict this purity in different forms. The lotus on the throne implies immaculate conception and therefore the being is innately divine. Deities are often depicted holding a lotus as a symbol of their purity, compassion, renunciation and perfection of qualities.

The Protection Parasol :The parasol or umbrella is an Indian symbol of both protection and royalty. The shadow protects from the heat and sun, and the coolness of the shade represents protection from the heat of suffering, desire, obstacles and illness. Different traditions have developed many designs of the parasol. The parasol dome can symbolise wisdom and the hanging skirt, compassion.

The Great Treasure Vase :The Treasure Vase is modeled on the traditional Indian clay water pot. The Tibetan design is very ornate with lotus petal designs. The scarf is a silk cloth from the god realm and the upper opening is sealed with a wish granting tree, with the roots retaining the water of longevity to create all the treasures. The 'inexhaustible treasures' possess special qualities, so that however much is removed from the vase, it will always remain full. Therefore it symbolises long life and prosperity.
Tibet - Tingsha 8 auspicious
83. Name:	Tibet - Tingsha double dragon with Dorje
- Description: 	Bronze bell, with reliefs, double dragons with Dorje
- Bells H:		2,0 cm; 0,787 inches;
- base Ø:		6,0 cm; 2,362 inches;

- Country of origin: 	Tibet
- Acquired:	Acquisition

Tingsha are used in Tibetan Buddhism as part of specific rituals, very often associated with food and food offerings, where they are rung to summon 'the hungry ghosts'.

They are also widely used by some Tuvan and Mongolian shamans, who ring them while calling to their spirits and the powers of creation.

This is a nice well made set, engraved with two dragons and two dorjes on the top of each cymbal - leaving the undersides plain. They have a good sound, although they are not a matched set - ie, they both have slightly different sounds when struck.
Tibet - Tingsha double dragon with Dorje
- Name:		Tingsha OM black painted
- Description: 	Bronze painted in black and gold inscription symbols OM.
- Bells H:	 1,2 cm; 0,472 inches;
- base Ø:	4,6 cm; 1,811 inches;

- Country of origin: Tibet
- Acquired:	Acquisition.
Tibet - Tingsha OM black painted
- Name:		Bell from 1846
- Description:	beonze bell, cast in 1846 as inscription shaw. Base relief inscription is: “KA M. ALEKSANDER LAGHEZENKOV 1846”
- Total high:	10,8 cm; 4,252 inches;
- Hanger:	2,0 cm; 0,784 inches;
- Bell H:	  8,8 cm; 3,464 inches;
- base Ø:	11,5 cm; 4,527 inches;

- Country of origin: Russia
- Acquired:	Acquisition

Delicate and pure sound of Valdai bells has been pleasant to human hearing more than 500 years already. Have you ever heard their melodious sound? Do you know their history referring to ancient times?

According to a beautiful legend, Valdai bells first appeared in 1478. That time the veche Novgorod bell was ordered to be taken from the Sofia belfry and sent to Moscow by Tsar Ivan the Third so that it sounded in harmony with all Russian bells and did not preach freedom any more.

But the prisoner failed to get to Moscow. On one of the slopes of Valdai mountains the sledge with bell slid downhill, the scared horses galloped back, the bell fell off the cart, dropped down into a ravine and smashed to pieces. First Valdai bells were cast from these pieces.

Another legend (there are lots of them) says that Valdai bells were first cast in the 17th century. In 1656 state craftsman Alexander Grigoriev cast Nikonov bell in Iver monastery. He gave pieces of bronze left from casting of the bell to the Valdai people who helped him. Since then, they say, bells have been cast in Valdai. Bells must have been cast in the 17th century already, but only in the second half of the 18th century the real Valdai (i.e. road) bells appeared. In the first place, these bells were necessary in Moscow and St. Petersburg high road, Russia's busiest road. Production centre was set up in Valdai situated in the centre of this high road.From immemorial time, local masters were famous for forvaldai bellging and they began to cast first Valdai bell.

In the beginning of the 19th century special bell workshops and plants appeared. First signed and dated bells refer to 1802. Phillip Tersky, Alexey Smirnov, Ivan Smirnov and Nikita Smirnov created bells that year. It is well known that Valdai is the first centre of road bells casting. A technology of their production differs from casting of church bells and was first developed in Russia. That's way one can fairly call Valdai bell casting a pure Russian national thing.
Valdai casting following road bells were cast in Slobodsky town (Vyatskaya guberniya), Tyumen, Kasimov (Ryazanskaya guberniya), Purekh settlement (Nizhegorodskaya guberniya) and other places.

Road bells served as a signal providing safety in road and a musical instrument for a coachman. Bells were swaying to the rhythm of movement of horses sometimes making them skip faster or enabling to have a rest while galloping.

The bells informed about coming of a chariot to the station and helped in many other respects so that a traveller couldn't do without it taking into account the conditions of Russian roads.

As said before, the history of Valdai bell casting existed in words up to the end of the 19th century, therefore the main source of knowledge is studying bells themselves, signs, dates and names of founders put on them. Valdai bell has a fixed consvaldai belltant (classical Valdai) form, which is a combination of equal correlation of measures of height and diameter that makes an impression of steadiness. Bells are deprived of decor as such what makes them look simple and functional and the most important thing is a sign put always in one and the same place, the bell's edge, the latter being called 'skirt' by local masters.Streamline and smooth form, peculiarities of a sloping top which is named "shoulder", the form of a "sundress", and especially "skirt" emphasize not only anthropomorphism of Valdai bells but indicate that it has shapes of a woman dressed in a Russian sundress. Valdai bells have certain characteristic features, among them originality of a loop for hanging of a clapper, forged clapper itself, places made smooth in combination with not sharpened rough strips.

In spite of the fact that they cost much money the value of Valdai bells was in high quality of a product (high-grade Ural copper was used), beautiful sound and tradition in everything, beginning with the legend about their appearance from the Veche Novgorod bell.
Valdai and Kasimov bell
- Name:		17,th century bell
- Description: 	Bronze temple bell.
- Total high:	20,0 cm; 7,784 inches;
- Bells H:	 18,0 cm; 7,086 inches;
- base Ø:	17,2 cm; 6,772 inches;

- Country of origin: China
- Acquired:	Acquisition from a private person
Zhong - 17th century temple bell

The pictures found on this site present bells from a private collection.
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