Room indicator boxes and a G.E.C. bell from a manor house in Kent
Three room indicator boxes and the electric bell from a servants' call system, which came from a manor house in Kent. At some point the whole set had been painted over in pale blue. Underneath, the cases, mechanisms and fittings were still there to be saved.
The indicator boxes and the bell had been painted over in pale blue, most likely when the room they hung in was redecorated. The paint covered the cases, the mounting plates and parts of the mechanisms, and rust had started on the bell's striker arm.
The paint was stripped off completely. The bare metal was then sanded through progressively finer grades to a high grit, and finished on a polishing wheel to bring it up to a high shine.
The smaller metal parts were taken back and polished in the same way, one piece at a time.
Large houses once called their staff with mechanical bells, pulled by cranks and wires running through the walls. From the late 19th century these were gradually replaced by electric systems like this one.
Each room had a push or pull. Pressing it sent a current to the bell, which rang in the servants' quarters, and to an electromagnet in the indicator box, which moved a marker in that room's window. Staff could see at a glance which room had called, then reset the indicators with the lever on the side of the box.
The bell was made by the General Electric Company, the British firm better known as G.E.C., founded in London in the late 1880s. With fifteen windows across its three boxes, this set would have served a sizeable house.