How to Identify Antique Sleigh Bells

October 23, 2020

Check out these awesome antique sleigh bells.

Video Translation: Hi, this is Jennifer here with City Farmhouse Antiques and I am here on a Friday morning with this week's find of the week. This is your first clue. This should put you in the mood for the holidays. Here is your second clue. I know some of you are already getting snow this morning and that should get you in the mood for the holiday. This is antique set of sleigh bells and they are absolutely gorgeous! This is are a very large set of antique sleigh bells if you can see them there. They hang about three feet long. So, a lot of you ask..how can you tell if antique sleigh bells are really antique? That's a great question. Everyone wants to know how do you tell antique sleigh bells. The first way really is obvious. If they look a beautiful buttery color, a golden color, and clean without any dirt or what I call a patina...they are probably not old. Here you can see. You see all those dark spots there and you can see the grooves in the petal design and how there is a darker area in the grooves. That is patina from age. That is your first clue that this is an antique bell. If they are buttery and look new and shiny they are probably from China, India or somewhere else. The other way to tell is if you look at the throat of the bell you are going to see a little opening or mouth on either side of that bell where these newer bells they are passing off as antique bells are just going to have slits. You won't see that mouth on both sides of the bell so that is another way to tell. Another clue, is that you should have four holes, however not always, on the bottom of your bell. Here you have one hole and you flip this over and you have a second hole, and whoops...I lost my bells! (Bells fall off the door) It could be worse right? Again, I am so technologically advanced I am doing this with one hand. Okay, I am going to put these back up now. Again, four holes. So there is one, two, and there you will see there is a third one and a fourth one. A lot of these bells, I don't think you are going to be able to see it, but the grooves inside, in between the strap, and this is an original antique strap you can see the wear on this strap and you can see how it separates. There will be a metal clip with an oval shaped metal piece in there and that's going to give you another clue that, that is an antique bell. Here you can see it a little better. That is perfect there. The sound on these is amazing! They have great sound. This is a graduated antique set of sleigh bells or jingle bells so what that means is you start up here with the smaller bells and then as you come down it has several number fours and different size bells, fives, and then it comes down to these very large bells on the bottom that are about two and a half inches in diameter on the bottom. They are just magnificent! Like I said, this strap hanging, hangs three feet. The leather strap is about 85" so six feet and it's got I believe when I counted 33 bells on it so it is loaded with bells. One of my favorite stories a customer told me when she was looking for set of antique sleigh bells last year was they lived on a lot of property and had a horse and wanted a set of antique sleigh bells to pull an antique sleigh for all the children at Christmas time. It doesn't get any better than that story does it...and serve hot cocoa? A lot of people, that don't have a horse to put them on, use them to hang over something like this antique door I have. People use them for decoration during the holidays because they are so collectible and beautiful and plus the sound is just awesome. I have given you some ideas on how to tell real antique sleigh bells from the knock offs. There are different designs of antique bells. This is what is known as a petal bell. See the petal shape. There are also raspberry and acorn shapes of antique bells. Any bells that you will typically find will date from 1845 to 1920. Bells from the 15th to 17th century you probably won't come across. Be sure and check out all of our antiques where you will find these on our website.They probably won't last long. People love antique sleigh bells. My last set did not last long and it took me quite a while to find these. Go check us out at www.cityfarmhouseantiques.com where we have more than just antiques. Where would you put these? Comment on our blog. Would you put them over a door? Give me a cool story. I don't know who can beat the story of a horse and sleigh rides at Christmas time. So if you are looking for a set. I have one. Contact us at www.cityfarmhousenantiques.com and I will get them packaged up and shipped out to you. Give us a like on our Facebook page and comment and let us know where you would hang these.