Bell shrine

Bell shrines are metal objects built to hold early medieval hand-bells, particularly those associated with early Irish saints. Although the enshrinement of bells lasted from the 9th to the 16th centuries, the more well-known examples date from the 11th century.^[1] Nineteen such Irish or British bell shrines survive, along with several fragments (mostly crests), although many more would have been produced. Of those extant, fifteen are Irish, three are Scottish and one is English. Most follow the general shape of a hand-bell capped with a crest above a semicircular cap that matches the shape of a bell handle.^[2]

The shrines are mostly of bronze and decorated with silver, rock crystal, and niello. They can be classified into two basic formats; at first as fixed mounds attached to the bell known as "applied" shrines (eight examples) and later as separate autonomous metal containers (eleven examples).^[3] Those of the latter type could no longer be rung and so were used for ceremonial or display purposes only.^[2] Decorative material includes silver, gold, glass and rock crystal, and of designs using filigree, cloisonné, openwork, and interlace patterns. The majority are in the collections of the National Museum of Ireland (NMI), the National Museum of Scotland (NMS) and the British Museum (BM).

The surviving examples are undated, unprovenanced and very few have inscriptions. A number were found in bogs, within church walls, or at the bottom of rivers, presumably after they were hidden during the Viking and later Anglo-Norman invasions of Ireland.^[1] Others were kept by successive generations of hereditary keepers, but by the 17th century had become seen as objects of superstition, and of low historical value.^[4][5] The revaluation of early medieval metalwork craftmanship began in the mid-19th century, and since an 1838 a lecture by George Petrie on "ancient Irish consecrated Bells", a number of these shrines are considered highpoints of both Irish and Scottish Insular and early Romanesque metalwork.^[6]