City Centre, Iziko Museum

Abstract

The Iziko Museum houses a magnificent set of historic bells. Among them, four ship bells and pieces of a fifth. 1. The most important bell that is on display is the bell that is thought to belong to the VOC-ship Brederode. The ship dates from 1644 and was shipwrecked at Cape Agulhas on May 3, 1785. More information on the ship and its faith can be found in the Grobbelaar-monograph. According to Grobbelaar, the wreck of the ship was discovered in 1981. Moreover, the ship bell and pieces of porcelain were identified as belonging to the ship. The bell is very well made. Unfortunately, we have not been able to record any inscriptions. The number of moulding wires however is exceedingly large. We find four sequences on the shoulder (3-2-1-2), eight more above the sound bow and a final three at the lip. Given the age of the ship, it should not be impossible that also the bell dates from the same period. The fact that the bell is made of bronze and not of copper makes this even more probable. If this is the case, then the bell would be among the oldest bells found so far in the country. 2. In the storage rooms of the museum are more bells. The smallest used to belong to a ship with the name Hermes and has been cast in Liverpool in 1899. Looking at the moderate size of the bell we expect that also the ship was rather small. 3. A larger bell that is also not on display used to belong to the Sir Henry Pottinger. There are more ships carrying this name. One of them is mentioned in a sailing announcement of 25 February 1846. Pottinger was Lieutenant General and became the first Governor of Hong Kong. 4. The largest of the bells also not on display belonged to the troop carrier Abercrombie Robinson ship which was launched on 12 November 1825. According to acquired information the bell used to belong to a church in Caledon. The ship wrecked on 27 May 1842 on Salt River Beach. 5. Another bell on display comes from the old farm Oranjezicht, now a Cape Town residential area on the slopes of Table Mountain. The farm was owned for many generations of van Breda’s after Pieter van Breda bought it in 1731. Over time the family gradually enlarged their property until it covered 182 hectares in the 19th century. The property was eventually sold to the City of Cape Town in 1948 whereafter it became a residential area. The inscriptions on the bell are minimal, only MICHIEL VAN BREDA 12 SEPTR. 1775, with the “R” slightly higher than the other letters. The bell was clearly made specifically for Michiel van Breda. It is not clear what the date 12 September refers to. A possibility is the date of birth of Michiel van Breda. The first Michiel owned the farm from 1758 – 1777 and the second Michiel from 1804 – 1851. It is possible that 12 September 1775 could refer to the latter’s birth date. A second van Breda bell hangs in the District Six Museum in Cape Town. The bell is well made but unfortunately is chipped on the rim in several places. On the bell are found five sequences of moulding wires (2-2-2-3-2), with the inscription between the second and third sequence of wires. There is no reference to the bell founder. 6. A further historic bell is much decorated. On the shoulder stands a very decorative band with putti, small angel-like figures amidst flowers. Then stands in between two pairs of moulding wires the reference to the founder: I BAGGE ME FECIT HORNAS AO 1776, indicating that the bell founder has been Jan Frederik Bagge. Under this reference is again a decorative band with figures of blowing angels and geometric figures. Above the sound bow one finds seven founding rings in groups 2-3-2 with the middle one substantially thicker than the others. Two more wires finish the decorations on the very pretty bell. Let us put the founder in an historic perspective. Johan Nicolaas Derck originated from Thuringen in Germany and moved to the Netherlands later. After learning the profession with Jan Crans in Amsterdam, he started in 1725 his own bell- and gun foundry in Hoorn, one of the headquarters of the VOC. That foundry was continued by his grandson Jan Nicolaas Derck and in 1776 sold to Jan Frederik BAGGE from whom no bells have been recorded in the Netherlands. Let us mention that the Waterhof Estate in Cape Town owns a bell from 1788 of Leonardus Haverkamp who succeeded Jan Bagge in 1779. 7. Up to now, have we been unable to allocate a further bell to a specific founder. A further problem with the bell is that is has been covered with remains of a kind of glue that was probably used as protection of the bell. The bell itself is nicely decorated. On the shoulder we find strings of flowers. Then follows a text that can be partially reconstructed: V. D .BOSCH 1759. Below it figures a second band that seems a mirror image of the band on the top. Above the soundbow we find three moulding wires with the middle one bigger than the surrounding ones, A final ring figures on the lip of the bell. Like the bell from Bragge we expect that the van Breda and Bosch bells have been imported from the Netherlands.