Back in 2010 we purchased what we supposed to be a Walter Bosse prototype bell. The seller of the bell said it was one of Bosse’s original prototypes. We were surprised that no other parties seemed to be interested and were able to purchase it for only 1 Euro. When it arrived we were able to find a model number stamped and written on the inside of the bell reading “2026”. Interestingly enough as well, the bell still had remnants of the sand-casting process stuck in little nooks in the ribbons and in the top of the bell! The design and shape of the bell seemed very in keeping with Bosse’s work althought the motifs were different from most of his other models as it didn’t feature any animals.
Unsure of its provenance, we got in touch with Michael over at Bosse-Art who still has all Bosse’s old catalogs and papers with original drawings in them. It seemed that this bell never went into production because there were no finished models in existence that we had seen. To our surprise, he was able to find the bell by the inscribed model number in one of the old catalogs.
Please Note: It takes a great deal of time, effort, and money to maintain the museum collection, host this website, create informative posts, and respond to authentication and identification requests. Thank Alyssa for her expertise and authentication assistance here—tips are greatly appreciated!
Buy a Coffee for Alyssa!Here’s a picture of the original catalog page he sent along!
And there it was: #20026 “Glocke Alt Wien” or “Old Vienna Bell” with the original 1950s sales price of 320 Austrian Schillings! Aren’t the little drawings of his fish dishes great as well? We have a few of those items in the Virtual Museum as well.
Thanks so much to Michael for his work in helping us authenticate this bell. We’re very excited to have it as part of our collection.