Ringing an Old Bell

The Bell Ukulele has been one of the most popular types of alternative ukuleles, as far as I can tell.  I'm judging just from the number of times I have seen it in informal surveys I have done of ukulele types, and the number of times I have seen it for sale. Today it is made by a number of manufacturers.

The Bell Ukulele came out in the 1920s in the era of the ukulele's "first wave" of popularity in the United States, a time when some ukulele manufacturers tried to increase their share of a burgeoning market for the instrument by introducing novel forms.  It was a great time for the regular type of ukulele, the ones that were built like miniature guitars, and also for the alternative ukulele.

The Fall 2016 issue of Ukulele magazine has a nice article on the Bell Ukulele and other alt types built by the Lyon and Healy Co. in the 1920s. https://www.ukulelemag.com/stories/the-great-ukes-lyon-healys-unusual-bell-and-shrine-ukes


I have to figure the the popularity of the Bell is due mainly to its beautifully elegant shape. which to me seems somehow naturally suited to a small stringed instrument.

The original (really?) Lyon and Healy Bell Ukulele

So where did this shape come from?  Did it spring fresh from the brain of some inspired designer or artisan with an eye for the graceful curve, the balanced proportion?  I guess it had to, because where else would it come from but someone's head?  But apparently it did not come from someone's head for the first time in early 20th-century America.

It seems this particular shape for a small stringed instrument originated about 250 years earlier, in late 17th-century Europe.

I was paging through a pretty dry and boring academic book on stringed instruments of Medieval times when I came upon the  page pictured below.

The drawing at the bottom left of the page is captioned "Hamburger Cithrinchen" ("Hamburger" as in the city of Hamburg Germany).  All the instruments on the page are also called generically citterns, an instrument about the size of a concert ukulele. 

Bell Citterns circ 1700

A little more research and I found a picture of the actual Hamburg instrument from 1676, which is in the collection of a British museum.  https://museumcollections.rcm.ac.uk/rcm_collections/hamburger-cithrinchen-bell-cittern-joachim-tielke-hamburg-1676/

Hamburger Cithrinchen (Bell Cittern), 1676

It hardly seems possible the Lyon and Healy Bell Ukulele is an original design that just happens to be shaped exactly (or almost exactly) like the Bell Cittern made in Germany in 1676.  More likely, Lyon and Healy patterned their uke on just this old instrument from way back when.  Maybe the designer at Lyon and Healy saw a drawing in a book just like I did, or took a stroll through that museum at the Royal College of Music in London and spotted something he liked.  

So what do we have here?  Theft of "intellectual property"?  The passage of time makes it a moot point, and who cares, anyhow?  We prize originality in art and design, and for good reason, but the fact is that art and design in all fields builds on the work of the past, and even originality is usually about three parts "theft" and two parts novelty.  And even the outright copying or near copying of an existing idea serves a purpose--the propagation of an idea considered worthy of copying.

Here's the way I look at it myself as a designer.  I like to be original--that's the heart of the fun in design, the thrill of new creation.  So I shy away from just copying something outright, but sometimes like to do something old with a new twist or an added dimension.  Most times I try be as original as possible, though, and have the hope that maybe someday someone will think it's worthwhile to "steal" something from me.