Mystery object is a handbell.

 Abstract.  Three connected pieces found in the Staffordshire (Lichfield) Hoard were described as a mystery, but clearly form a handle to a handbell. Such a liturgical object was essential for the early church to call for prayers or signal a death. They add to the argument the hoard was an archive associated with the cathedral.  

    Early in the examination of the Staffordshire hoard, three items^[1] were connected to give a single object initially described as a mystery which then elicited fanciful suggestions for its purpose.^[2] A top button, 27 mm wide, has a black and white squared millefiori glass pattern in the shape of a Greek cross.^[3] A Greek cross is one of the most common Christian symbols, in common use by the fourth century, and should have invalidated all the secular and Jewish suggestions for the object’s function. The button had holes which matched the top of a cylinder, 18 mm long. The bottom of the cylinder connected to a base plate 60 mm long, that was circular, domed and compressed. When combined it was less than 200 mm long. The base plate has holes all around the edge suggesting rivets connected the entire handle to the cup of a bronze or iron bell.^[4]  

Reconstructed hand bell with a large incised plate identical to a panel on the gold cross. Several plates show a cloisonné arrangement resembling an early Celtic hand bell. A copy of St Patrick’s bell, c. seventh century, is shown below for comparison. 

There are few references to early hand bells, but presumably a bell would have been used to call people to prayer, baptism, assembly at a shrine or at the time of dying with a passing bell. Foot thought a bell summoned the devout to prayer^[5] and quoted a poem in which men hastened from outside to the summons of ringing.^[6] Columba ran to the church when called by a bell, but died soon afterwards.^[7] Bede described Nuns called to prayer with a bell at Whitby, AD 680, and again at the death of Abbess Hild.^[8] Chapter 43 of the Rule of Benedict, c. AD 530, starts with, ‘On hearing the signal for an hour of the divine office’ with the signal possibly being a bell. Chapter 47 mentioned a signal announcing the hours and this would also apply to the time of someone dying. Wilfrid of Ripon introduced Benedictine rule to many minsters^[9] and this could have included Lichfield. Stephen’s biography of Wilfred has an occasion when a bell was rung at Ripon to call all the community together to hear Bishop Wilfrid.^[10] This evidence for the existence and use of small bells is incomplete, but enough references show they were being used at different locations for diverse purposes.

    The squashed dome has two incised plates with zoomorphisms. One plate is larger and a little more elaborate. It is identical to the small panel above the central garnet on the gold cross, apart from the rings being reversed. This implies the bell was sacred. The zoomorph consists of sinuous arms with two rings, whereas the small panel has only one ring; both end with three-digit hands. A separate panel (included in Catalogue number 541) only 17 mm long, has two zoomorphs ending in three-digit hands and biting each other. Having three similar panels in which two are almost identical to the gold cross panel is intriguing. The panels could mean the same as on the cross, namely, an Anglo-Saxon enigmata for the name of Christ entombed and therefore suggests a passing bell. Tatwine’s riddle 7, early eighth century, concerns a bell with the line, ‘I am forced as the stricken widely to release mournful things’.^[11]

Almost all of the known early bells belonged to Celtic Insular churches. There are several garnet arrangements on the squashed plate in the shape of a Celtic bell and this must be highly significant. All surviving bells^[12] tend to be larger with a metal loop for holding the bell.  A smaller bell with a straight handle fits a use for ringing on a life passing; a gentle tinkling sound being preferable to a loud gong. If ‘Patrick’s bell’^[13] was his own, then it would be plausible for Northumbrian bishops like Aiden, Cedd, Chad and Wilfrid to possess one. It would be their emblem of office; the priest being figuratively a bell calling to prayer ^[14] especially for a passing life.

[1] Catalogue No. 541 (K130, K545 and K1055). Other isolated pieces were also added to this collection.

[2] Suggestions included saddle fitting, shield boss, drinking horn stopper, parchment roll stopper, lid to a ciborium, helmet decoration, mirror handle, part of a sceptre and a tefillin. Part of a Jewish priest’s headdress is a frequently given purpose.

[3] The north side of the Bewcastle cross has a panel with a millefiori pattern. Is this an interchange of design from the metalworker to the stoneworker? Similarly, it is in the cross page of the Book of Durrow, fol.1v, so  has it been adopted by a scribe of manuscripts?

[4] R. Sharp, The hoard and its history, (Studley: 2016),73.

[5] S. Foot, Monastic life in Anglo-Saxon England c.600–900 (Cambridge, 2006), 192.

[6] ibid. 200 From De Abbatibus by Æthelwulf, c. AD 800–825, 20, 613–614.

[7] I. Bradley, Columb. Pilgrim and Penitent (Glasgow, 1996), 62.

[8] J. McClure and R. Collins, Bede. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, (Oxford: 2008), 213.

[9] J. Blair, The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society,(oxford: 2005), 97.

[10] B. Colgrave, The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus, (Cambridge: 1927), 138.

[11] M. J. B. Allen and D. G. Calder, Sources and Analogues of Old English Poetry. The Major Latin texts in translation (Cambridge, 1976), 56.

[12] 127 bells are known from c. 500 to 1100. Ireland has 95, Scotland 19, Wales 6 and England 2. Most have four sides, see C. Bourke, ‘Early ecclesiastical hand bells in Ireland and Britain’. J. of the Antique Metalwork Soc. 16 (2008), 22. Most hand bells have clappers, but some were intended to be struck with a hammer.

[13] In the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.

[14] J. H. Arnold and C. Goodson, ‘Resounding Community: The history and meaning of medieval church bells Viator, (2012), 20.