5th-7th century AD. A bronze handbell with waisted profile, loop for clapper and trapezoidal lug to the upper face, circular hole; stamped curved panel with maker's name 'BODVIC[..]'. See Hamshere, J.D. Colonization and the Evolution of Rural Settlement in Worcestershire, Prior to 1349, Ph.D. thesis, University of Birmingham; Jackson, K. H. Language and History in Early Britain, Edinburgh, 1953; Nash-Williams, V. E. The Early Christian Monuments of Wales, Cardiff, 1950. 780g, 20cm (8"). Property of a North London gentleman; acquired on the UK art market before 2000. The name 'Bodvic...' appears on some pre-Roman (1st century BC-1st century AD) coins found in the Worcester area, where it appears to relate to one of a series of magnates or chieftains with power in this region. A related Gaulish name 'BODVOCVS' appears as a maker's stamp on Roman Samian ware vessels, relating to a potter who worked at Lezoux in Gaul in the mid-2nd century AD. It may be related to the form 'Bodvoci' (genitive singular) on the 'Margam Stone', or 'Carreg Lythyrenog', now in the Margam Stones Museum, Port Talbot, Wales. The name appears as the first word in a longer Latin inscription there 'BODVOCI HIC IACIT FILIUS CATOTIGIRNI PRONEPUS ETERNALI VEDOMAVI' ([The Stone] of Bodvoc. Here he lies, son of Cattegern and great-grandson of Eternalis Vedomavus"). The monument is a pillar associated with an early Christian community in the area. Bells played an important part in early and mediaeval Christian liturgy where the ringing was believed to drive off Satan's emissaries.