Bells played an important role in everyday life during the 16th century, regulating the working day, calling worshippers to church and announcing special occasions such as weddings and funerals. Small bells were either rung by hand or suspended from beams and struck with a hammer. Handbells were both religious and secular in function. They were used in religious rituals and were commonly decorated with figures of saints. Small bells were also used as doorbells, and to call servants and institutions into action.

Bells, mortars and cannon were produced in the same workshops. Church bells were often extremely large and heavy and difficult to move so founders were itinerant, setting up their workshops close to the site commissioning bells. Designs for bells, mortars and cannon were therefore dispersed quickly around Europe.

This bell, made in around 1550, is slightly damaged but still of exceptional quality. It is cast with figures based on the plaquettes of one of the most significant woodcut artists of the 16th century, Peter Flötner. The figures on this bell represent 4 from his series The Twelve Ancient German Kings and depict Charlemagne, Wygewon, Tuiscon and Wandalus. The V&A owns an example of the Charlemagne plaquette (110-1867).

Flötner was a sculptor, medallist, cabinetmaker, woodcutter and designer. He worked initially in Augsburg from around 1512 to 1516 before moving to Nuremberg where he became a citizen in 1522. Changes in Flötner's style after around 1530 suggest he may have travelled to Italy. His workshop catered for bell-founders, goldsmiths, pewterers and medallists supplying them with plaques made of lead, tin, bronze and solnhofen limestone. They were used like pattern books. The plaques were arranged in lines and a clay or plaster mould was made from them. In these moulds wax models were cast which were then applied to the outside of the wax models of bells, mortars and tankards before they were cast in metal.