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Saturday, June 9, 2018

My first crotal bell find

June 9, 2018
I had a great day detecting the flea market.  By 2:30 there were still some stragglers packing up their tables, and Randy who maintains the property was going round picking up trash and recyclables.  We talked a bit and guessed that they get around $100 a year in redeemable bottles and cans.  (Maine has a 5 cent per bottle redemption system).  

While we were chatting he pulled this vase out of the trash and offered it to me.  Nice! It does not have any makers marks, so it's probably not at all valuable, but I like it. It shows 2 peacocks in gold and colors on one side only:

So then I showed him my favorite find of the day, the crotal bell.  I have seen Facebook detectorists showing many crotal bells that have been found in England and down the East Coast but I never expected to find one myself.  They stopped making them and using them in the late 1800s.  It is bronze and cleaned up nicely in my rock tumbler in about 1.5 hours.  For those that don't know what a crotal bell is, here's a link to the Wikipedia entry.


The other cool finds include this nice pewter(?) heart pendant:

A small sterling ring:

And a sterling holly/bell pendant:

I'm told this is a mid 1800s (?) #3 Elgin pocket watch winder.

Other bits (literally!) and pieces include the dual Phillips screw driver bit that I can really use, and some brass screws and bits that go in my brass recycling bin.






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