Bronze Chinese bell from the Boxer Rebellion : New South Wales Naval Brigade

Gilded bronze bell with flat top bearing two entwined dragons to form the headstock. The top is also stamped 'NB NSW'. A length of cast iron chain is attached to the headstock. Cast around the outside of the bell are various raised patterns. These include a pair of ying-yang symbols, a pair of Eight Diagrams, 36 small rounded protusions, eight discs and two vertical inscriptions. One inscription gives the date of the bell's manufacture 'the fifty-fourth year of the Kang-xi era', or 1715, and the other the name of the tone of the bell, a double 'peaceful formula'. The Eight Diagrams, made from combinations of three broken or unbroken parallel lines, have been used for divination for over two thousand years. A pair of Diagrams represents the universe. The Eight Diagrams are used by Daoists for mystic symbolism and by Confucians for divination. The bell has no clapper and would originally have been struck externally to produce a tone.

Original information accompanying the bell states, 'Presented (to whom not specified) by officers of the China Naval Contingent of Commonwealth Naval Forces, 1901'. The markings on the headstock clearly show that the bell was captured by members of the New South Wales Naval Brigade, or Contingent, sent to the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. Its place of origin in China is unknown. It may have been one of a set of bells of different sizes and tones in which case it is likely to have been associated with Daoist ceremonies.