}ULASERJET}.mt 10 .hm 3 .pn 1 .h1Grayson Enterprises Ltd. First NA Newspaper Rights .h2Page #. Copyright 1989 .h39 August 1989 966 words .fo  „„        MARI WITTUM - BELL COLLECTOR  Written by June Grayson  Photographed by Richard Grayson      Automatic electronic bell and buzzer systems control the   back-to-school activities of today's children. No longer can  you find a one room school with a prim and pretty school   mistress ringing her own school bell to mark the hours and call   the children from play.  Although she is too young to remember the days of the   country school, Mari Wittum owns several antique school bells. She has a big silver bell with a black handle from the Eighteenth  π03 Š century. When the teacher rang that bell, the children knew that   they had better start running if they were to get to school on   time. She also owns several smaller school bells, the kind that   used to sit on the upper corner of the teacher's desk to call the   class to order. She even has one bell shaped like an apple,   perhaps a gift of a grateful pupil or hopeful parent. "That's a   cutesy bell," explains Wittum. "It was probably made in the   1940s or 1950s, when bells became decorative rather than   practical."  Wittum started her bell collection when she was five years   old. An only child, she attended antique auctions on the   weekends with her parents. Her father collected pulleys and her   mother collected metal banks. "I wanted my own subject," says   Wittum, "and I picked out a little metal bell before an auction   began. My mother told me - 'fine, we will bid up to five dollars   for it, but if it goes over that, I'll stop and let the other   bidders have it.' It did go over five dollars so the other lady   won the bid.  "After the auction, the successful bidder came over to talk   to us. 'Your daughter is so good that I want to give this bell   to her as a present,' she said. 'I have a granddaughter just her   age and if she had been here in your daughter's place she would   have screamed and cried.'"   π03 Š  „„  Wittum has 92 metal bells, her favorite kind. "I chose them   when I was young because they wouldn't break." She has received   other kinds of bells as gifts. Bell collectors almost have to   specialize by material or category. The first bells are as old   as mankind - made out of clay and fired perhaps while a woolly   mammoth roasted over a caveman's fire. Every culture had its   own bells. Ancient people believed that bells had special powers. The   Hebrew Bible noted that bells were among King David's proces  sional instruments when he brought the Ark of the Covenant to   Jerusalem. His horses wore bells to ward off evil spirits.   Prophets and high priests sewed bells into their garments.   Biblical bells were "crotal" bells, shaped like the ancient   Chinese bells and our old sleigh bells: metal spheres containing   loose pebbles.  The most important use of bells was for signaling. The   Greeks decorated their homes with bells. Greek warriors had   small bells concealed in their shields. When the captain made   nightly rounds, each soldier had to rattle his shield to show   that he was guarding his post. For the same reason, Roman   sentries had to wear bells on their breastplates.  Bells called people to worship, tolled the hours, announced   events, and regulated the daily routine. (Clocks did not come   into widespread use until the Seventeenth century). π0- Š Bells have been treasured as patriotic symbols. The Liberty   Bell, the traditional symbol of U. S. freedom, bears the motto,   "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabi  tants thereof" (Leviticus 25:10). Commissioned in 1751 and hung   in 1752 in the Pennsylvania State House, the colonists had to   hide the bell when British forces entered Philadelphia during the   Revolutionary War. It cracked irreparably when it was rung for   the last time in 1846 for Washington's birthday. The ancient Chinese were the first people to make chimes, a   sequence of bells tuned to a seven note scale. We call sets of   at least 23 tuned bells carillons. Groups of two or more free-  swinging bells "peal." One bell rung in repetition is said to   "toll."  Metal bells were first made by forging and riveting.   Casting of molten metal began in the Bronze Age, beginning about   3,000 B. C. The great Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages all   had their bell towers. The world's largest bell, The Tsar Bell of Moscow, weighed   200 tons when it was cast in 1733. It never rang because it was   cracked by fire in 1737. Glass, porcelain, and pottery manufacturers have made bells   in every shape, color, and form to gratify collectors. The   Victorians used bells to call their servants and announce after  noon tea. Collectors especially prize sets of bells such as  π0- Š those featuring the Sunbonnet Girls. Baby rattles can be consid  ered another form of bell. Beast of burden bells, tied around the necks of pasturing   animals so that strays could find their way back to the herds,   hold a special nostalgia for our rural past. Who can think of   Christmas without sleigh bells, another form of a crotal bell or   rattle? Train bells are very collectible - and expensive - now.  "You won't find many cheap bells for sale any more," warns   Wittum. "When I started to collect, I was able to buy most of my   bells for around five dollars. I had to pay $65.00 for the last   bell I bought a few months ago." New bell collectors should visit museums to see bell   collections and read reference books, such as "The Collector's   Book of Bells," by L. Elsinore Springer, Crown Publishers. If you visit the Kane County Flea Market the first weekend   of every month, look for Mari and Alec Wittum in the main build  ing, where they sell their homemade candy. Or stop at their   candy store featuring children's penny candy and homemade choco  late candy in the Warehouse, Century Corners, St. Charles.  „„  They'll be there with bells on.    ##### Uf Manuscript sέ3΄πe΄-„ „Œ ”œ €(#¬&πϋ€DANSRPT "€DECK 0€ERNST (€ESCOBAR €FORWARD GIFT H€GIFT WS H€HSI