Shiny Bell – St. Brigid’s – 1858
Monday, January 28th, 2013
This appears to be the original tower bell for St. Brigid’s Church, made in Meneely’s Bell Foundry in Troy, NY. I wonder what it looked liked before it was polished. I whacked the bell with my hand and it rang nicely. Interesting that the name was spelled Bridget back then.
It would have had the typical green-blue patina on it, cleaning and polishing this was a big mistake, not only does it damage the metal, but it will simply turn green again within a few years. The green patina actually protects the metal from further corrosion once it forms, they need to leave stuff liek this ALONE and stop trying to make 150 year old anitiques look new!
Menealy bell co is well known for high quality, they are very expensive/valuable bells and on occasion when one comes up for sale on ebay they go for many thousands of dollars.
I was thinking the same thing, Randall.