EAST INDIA COMPANY CAST BRONZE BELL
DATED 1747
£18,750
Auction: 5 February 2020 at 10:00 GMT
Description
bearing the company insignia VOC and the date 1747, JAFFANAPATNAM, suspended in a wrought iron frame mounted to a large stone mill wheel
Dimensions
Bell diameter 14in.
Footnote
Note: The Dutch East India Company, Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, was founded in1602 and was sponsored by the Dutch government in an effort to stabilize profits and form a monopoly in the Dutch spice trade. It was the world’s first formally listed public company, and was given the power to build forts, keep armies and make treaties.
The first permanent trading post was in Batavia, Indonesia; but eventually they were establishing colonies and trade throughout Asia, expanding their reach to Ceylon, modern day Sri Lanka, in 1640. Jaffanapatnam is today’s Jaffna on the Sri Lanka’s north-west coast, a city that had been established by the Portuguese as their colonial administrative center, that was won by the Dutch East India Company in 1658 after a three-month-siege. This bell, cast with the name of the city and the date 1747, probably hung in one of the trade warehouses or company buildings and would have been used to announce ship arrivals and departures, or for administrative proclamations.