Commentary
Team bells for horses made by the Robert Wells bell foundry of Aldbourne, Wiltshire, in the 19th century. The four bells are suspended from a leather-covered wooden frame and are partly concealed by a red woollen fringe. This set was tuned to a major chord. Each horse in the team wore a set of bells. The pointed metal supports of the frame were fixed to the hames, the curved wooden or metal sections on the horse collar to which the traces of the harness are attached. The sound of the bells signalled the approach of teams of horses pulling large loads along narrow roads, serving as a warning to traffic travelling in the opposite direction.