[Bell Historians] Symbols on 1718 bell at Clent (Worcs)

[David Bagley]

They seem to be similar to Zodiac signs from 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac



David


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Pickford" <c.j.pickford.t21 at ITIcWLAgbhpaoNMc1xUjwCKkZTOf3HYTV6c033CcXyAPQTUHhhNRJPseYjMRXCK1eEi1eihW2eSWlf4AEQDqrIFbxS7ll3Lo.yahoo.invalid>
To: <bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2007 8:00 PM
Subject: [Bell Historians] Symbols on 1718 bell at Clent (Worcs)


Can anyone help with this one?

I recently examined the bells at Clent, and found that on the third (by 
Joseph Smith of Edgbaston, 1718) H.B. Walters had missed a row of symbols in 
the first row of decoration below the inscription band.  Using the nearest 
available characters in MS Word, the symbols are something like:

f * :  f d :  8 ` :  e ` :

Most are near matches, except the 8 which is like a pair of spectacles set 
diagonally (no MS symbol equivalent). Basically, these are pairs of symbols 
separated by colons.

I have uploaded a scanned copy of my rubbing on the "photos pages" of the 
Historians site, although (my first attempt) I bungled it and instead of 
starting a new album the picture appears alongside the recently posted photo 
of Tundtall bells. It's called "Clent rubbing" - and is actually two strips 
of paper in which the lower one should follow the top one end-to-end

Can anyone advise me on either the meaning of the individual symbols or the 
significance of the whole string?

Chris Pickford 
           
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