The Bell Shrine of St Mura, 11th - 16th century (bronze, brass, silver, parcel-gilt, rock...

This beautifully crafted hand bell is one of the most mysterious objects in the Wallace Collection and it was believed to have supernatural powers. It is made of bronze with ornaments applied in stages. The earliest, from the late eleventh century, is the brass strip with a Viking-inspired ornament, visible in the bottom right corner where a fragment of the later silver decoration is detached. There is also a cross in the centre of the bell embellished with rock crystal and amber. The bell is reputed to have come from the Abbey of Fahan, County Donegal, Ireland, where St Mura (c. 550-645) was the first abbot. Such bells were used in monasteries for time-keeping; they were rung to call monks for prayers and meals. They were also used in the devotional context, for example, the sound of bell-ringing accompanied processional exhibition of relics. This might be one of the reasons why the bells became identified with relics and particular saints. At some point in their history they were enshrined – a decorative metal box (shrine) was made to house a relic or, less commonly, ornaments were applied directly onto the surface of a bell, as with the Bell of St Mura. The care for relics was entrusted to special families, called keepers. Thanks to them so many Irish relics survived the Viking raids, the dissolution of monasteries under Henry VIII and other historical upheavals. It was during the nineteenth century when many relics were dispersed, greatly due to the Great Famine of 1845 and emigration in the following years. The last keeper of this bell was a poor fisherman who sold it for 6 pounds probably in the 1840s. John McClelland, who acquired the bell in 1850, published an article about the bell in 1853. He described legends related to the object, which were still alive in the nineteenth century. The bell was believed to have power in alleviating human suffering and pregnant women drunk from it to assure a safe confinement.