An old thread (Here) calls them Dusing or Dupsing. Following this as a search term yields knightly plaque belts, but no bells. An older website (Here) calls them Folly Bells. Also a search term that yields no results. (except another 15 year old SCAdian website) I like the proposed "Sounding Belt" or "Thundering Belt".
Nevertheless, whatever they were called, the fashion exists. Here's what I have so far, arranged into a rough chronological order:
The Crucifixion
1404 or 1414 Konrad von Soest
attribution in picture
St. Maurice, 1411
Tristan and Isolde, unknown edition
Looks like 1420s
attribution in picture
attribution in picture
Roman de la Rose
which I think is from the Meister des Rosenromans edition, 1420-1430
Frieze completed in 1475, but depicts Engelbrecht I van Nassau (died in 1442) who wears what appears to be an earlier style of armor than his son Jan IV. See: https://www.flickr.com/photos/roelipila ... otostream/
c. 1480 Unknown Master, German
Altarpiece of the Seven Joys of Mary
I know there's a good bit more out there; I saw paintings featuring them when I was hunting for plaque belts and other 15th century fashion, but foolishly I didn't think to save them. But nine is a start.
- What we see so far is (in all the images where we can tell) that these bells are *almost* always hung from a plaque belt, except in one case where they are hung from a collar of enormous chain.
- The belts are almost always worn at the natural waist -with the apparent exception of the 1420s, where the belt is also worn at the high hip (modern belt height), and of the woman, who wears the belt fashionably (in that decade) under the bust. There is *no* instance of the belt being worn at the low hip -in fact, St. Maurice is wearing a large plaque belt at the low hip, underneath the small plaque belt that holds up the bells!
- There are five instances of round bells, four of pear or teardrop-shaped bells. All of these appear to be crotal-style bells with a pea instead of a clapper. After research (ie: trying to find bells to buy) the "purse"-like wrinkling on the bottom of the bells on the van Nassau frieze, and the slashes on the bottom of the bells in the Devonshire tapestry, appear to be depicting a medieval version of Claw Bells. (Note: that claw bell was made with a pea that was hung as a clapper, so perhaps we shouldn't rule clappers out entirely)
So far all round bells appear in the first half of the 15th century, while teardrop-shaped bells range from 1420-1480. - The chains these bells are hung from varies from perhaps a single link (1420, 1480), to a hand's breadth (1404, 1405, 1411), to as much as a foot or even eighteen inches.
The chains can be surprisingly heavy! In three cases, the links appear to be at least 3/4" wide perhaps larger. In both cases were bells are worn over armor, the chains are very heavy. In the case of civilian wear, the chains appear to normally be more diminutive. - We can see straight off that standard jingle bells are almost entirely inappropriate. What we want are much larger and heavier. The bells on the woman's belt are fairly standard, but on men's belts, we see 2"-3" diameter bells for the round bells, and 2"-4" lengths for the teardrop shape.
Searching e-bay for "Camel Bells" (for the teardrop shape) or "Elephant Bells" (for the round shape) has gotten me awfully close to what we are looking for. The 3" round elephant bells are just about perfect. Unfortunately, for the teardrop shape, I have so far been unable to find bells longer than 2". That's going to give the bells a much higher chime than the longer bells I would prefer.
Thus, this topic.
A long time ago, before research, I bought some long, tall bells from Argentina that purported to be brass. They weren't. They were gold painted steel. But! They had a beautiful windchime-like sound. I don't know much about bells, but I assumed that length = lower tone, like it does in horns. Since the bells I bought were very thin, I also assumed that had something to do with it, but I really have no idea.
I made a prototype from thin brass, and it clanks more than it rings, but when it rings it has a reasonably pleasant low tone, like what I'm looking for. I'm looking for advice. How do I make it clank less? How do I keep the low note in the bell? Can I make these sturdier without sacrificing tone?