Re: Very old Chimes on Ebay

[Douglas Benton]

Hi, Blanche :)

Blanche Kangas (Bell Buggy Express) said:

On Nov 3, 2011, at 7:51 PM, handb...@googlegroups.com wrote:

 
The chimes in question were made by the Fox factory in England. Everett Hilty in Colordo had one of the first sets that he used with his college ringers. The first time most of us  (at least in the west) saw or heard chimes was at the AGHER seminar at the Womens College in Denver in the late 80's. His college choir rang the opening concert of the seminar and used them in the concert. It was at the same seminar that people started talking about six-in-hand and the two ringers that had come up with the technique were in D3enver to share their technique with us. Getting back to the chimes, Schulmerich imported the chimes from Fox in England and acted as the U.S. distributor for them. By the time the Fox factory in England went out of business, Schulmerich had started development on their own brand of chimes.

I understand these chimes were called Handchimes and distributed by the Handchime Co. of England, though made by Fox.  They eventually went out of business and Schulmerich bought and sold the remaining stock.  Fascinating instruments!  They had a hole in it that you could create either a muted kind of sound or a vibrato - like touching the bass of the tines of Malmark Choirchimes or the current Schulmerich chimes.

By the way, the two ringers that taught 6-in-hand at the AGEHR Directors Seminar in Denver (Denver Women's College) was my ringer, Marty Brent (see "Marty's Six-In-Hand Ring" in Overtones compendium), who invented the technique, and myself.  We closed the class ringing "My Grandfather's Clock" out of the Scott Perry book - 12 bells, 2 ringers.  Great fun!

Doug Benton

Gold Canyon, AZ

[Thomas Simpson]

Hey Doug, 

What year was that seminar?

Thomas

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[Sue Nelson]

Years ago I saw a picture online of individual bamboo tube chimes with the exact same clapper mechanism as these old handchimes.  Similar, clapperless instruments called the bamboo and metal "bonca" are described in David Sawyer's "Vibratiions: Making of Unorthodox Musical Instruments."  

I have pictures and descriptions of anklungs (angklungs), Deagan shaker chimes (aka shaking chimes, organ chimes, or triple octave organ chimes), and antique handchimes (thanks to Michele Sharik) up on the Virtual Handbell Museum website:  

Chimes:  http://www.susantnelson.com/Antique_Handbells/Vintage_Chimes.html

Shaker chimes:  http://www.susantnelson.com/Antique_Handbells/Org_Chimes.html (Marlow Cowan's set) 

http://www.susantnelson.com/Antique_Handbells/Shaker.html (Steven Uhrik's set)

Anklung:  http://www.susantnelson.com/Antique_Handbells/Montessori.html

Anklungs are Indonesian instruments consisting of 2 or 3 tuned bamboo tubes, suspended in a frame, and are played by shaking the frame.  They are available from Ten Thousand Villages http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/  (although I strongly suggest you go to a store to purchase them so you can check the tuning); Lark in the Morning  http://www.larkinam.com/;  and sometimes on Ebay.  

J.C. Deagan shaker chimes were patterned after the anklung.  As per their catalog, there were two different varieties:  "Deagan Organ Chimes" had 4 nickel plated tubes per frame and were available in 1.5 to 4 octaves; "Deagan Aluminum Chimes" had 3 tubes per frame, and came in 1.5 to 3.5 octaves.  These instruments are very rare.  The Dapper Dans have a set, and they have a lot of information about them on their site.  http://www.harmonize.com/dapperdans/   Purdue University has a shaker chime ensemble too:  http://www.purdue.edu/pmo/bells/bells.shtml    Here are some YouTube vids of shaker chimes and anklungs so you can hear them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayUgk2ZXiUE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z6j7HZET18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z3VgjCfOXA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12ZDdeAuy2M

Sue

www.susantnelson.com