Exquisite 100-year-old bronze Santa Barbara California Mission souvenir bell. Tiny metal ID tag stamped "541".  Lovely, clear, high pitched, resounding ring.

 3" tall, 2 1/2" diameter. Excellent, pristine condition with a luscious green patina...not like some with discoloring from a heavy build-up of oils from being handled for 100 years.

Designed and cast by Mrs. A.S.C. Forbes of Los Angeles between 1914 and 1937, this is a replica of one of the bells hanging at Mission Santa Barbara, founded in 1786. Forbes visited many of the missions of the southwest and sketched what she could see of the bells hanging in the towers. 

Researching this bell design, I came across an article about the 1000-bell collection of New Mexico matriarch, Lillian Yrisarri de Livingston, great-granddaughter of Don Francisco Xavier Chavez, the first governor of New Mexico when the territory came under Mexican rule in 1822. Lillian was a member of the American Bell Association and collected bells from 1943 until her death in 1957. She attached numbered tags to her bells and kept detailed ledgers on them. Unsure if this may be one of Lillian's bells, or from another collector with a huge collection. I'm offering two other similar-sized Forbes mission bells with numbered tags (16 & 219), as well as a complete collection of the 21 California Mission bells Forbes created.

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