The State Hermitage Museum: Exhibitions

Nineteenth-Century Table Bells in the collection of the State Hermitage

Table bells remained an invariable element in the furnishings of a Russian residential interior throughout the nineteenth century until the arrival of the electric bell. More often than not such bells were made from bronze or brass, a metal that can be finely worked while not costing a great amount, which also possessed the sonorous quality required of such items. The bell was more than a means of summoning a servant. Standing on the desk of an official or the dressing-table of a society lady, it was also an ornament in the everyday life of its owner. It was often chosen to be in stylistic keeping with the objects around it - the cabinet bronze, the writing set (sometimes a bell was included in the set along with the inkwell), candelabra or furniture. When historicism became the leading trend in interior design (from the late 1830s), fantasy in the design of bells became truly unlimited. Artists and craftsmen drew on the creations of the past, recalling to life long-forgotten shapes and decorative elements. That period saw the appearance of bells in Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo styles, ones that used Oriental or Russian national ornaments and motifs. A table bell might also make some sort of statement that as a rule reflected the nature of its owner. Bells can be divided into several genres according to their decoration. The memorial genre more often than not is a model of some famous church bell (the bell of St Peter's in Rome, the Tsar Bell in the Moscow Kremlin); the edifying genre illustrated subjects from fables and fairy-tales; humorous bells were made in the form of wine bottles, weights, bags, beehives; frivolous bells featured depictions of devils, bacchanalia and amusing hunting scenes. Bells might draw on national exotica (taking the form of Chinese people or Russian peasants), might be inspired by a particularly literary or historical figure, or by some scene from a work of fiction. The bulk of the bells (about 700) in the Hermitage stocks come from the collection of Alexander Matveyevich Kovanko (1856-1920), one of the Russian pioneers of airships. For many years he worked to assemble this unusual collection, each item of which preserved some particle of a past era and the memory of the people that lived in it.

Bell with a female arm
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