The Beautiful Vintage Item You Can Thrift That Has So Much Charm

Thrift stores are rife with interesting home decor pieces, and if you're lucky, you can score some charming vintage collectibles that add beauty to your home. Brass decor items are often popular sellers in thrift stores and at rummage sales. In fact, it's a vintage decor style everyone wants to get their hands on. One vintage brass curio to keep your eyes peeled for is the vintage brass lady bell. While brass has been turned into trinkets since ancient Egyptian times, the lady bells may date back to the 1800s in the U.K., according to online listings. Unfortunately, it's hard to find much information about these gals' history beyond listings on sites like eBay and Etsy. 

It seems that brass lady bells may have been more popular in the U.K. than in the U.S., so some collectors have an easier time finding them while thrifting at charity shops overseas. If you are lucky enough to find one at your local thrift store, you may want to pick it up. Some of them could be worth some money, while in any case, they make unique talking points and are working bells. 

Brass items tend to stand out on the shelves of trinkets and housewares in the thrift stores because they're not white or clear like many home decor items. What's really unique about these bells, aside from their appearance as well-dressed ladies, is that the ringer part of their dress is their feet (though not all of them have this). Those with feet tend to be worth more. It appears that the original use for these adorable bells was to ring for service — the well-off would have them to call servants to get whatever they needed, or to ring when it was tea time. The bells' fancy dress likely just made them more decorative. You can find them in all sorts of attire, representing fashion throughout the ages. 

Brass lady bells are available in sizes from under 3 inches tall to over 7 inches. The Victorian-style dressed lady bells seem to be the most common, passing effortlessly for a southern bell. If you're hunting them down for their worth, you'll want to make sure they have complete faces (not worn down a bunch), are polished (but not too polished), and haven't been painted (which depletes their value and is difficult to remove). If you need to clean your lady bells, we have the secret to cleaning thrifted brass. You can use some of our steps for authenticating your latest thrifting finds.