LAZY DAISY BELL & CALL BUTTON, circa 1910

Used as a portable calling system for master and servant or doctor and patient, simply it consists of a large battery box with a bell on the side a fabric covered lead connects to a bell push, which is unwound and left with the patient/master ready for calling. The system could have many other uses. Dating these units is difficult as the manufacturing period could have lasted for as much as 30 years. Thanks to a comment received from America, one was found with evidence that it had been used in 1904, dating it to the turn of the 20th Century. These items have somehow been labelled as a Lazy Daisy.

Your comments:

• I have two of these things. One like you show and a somewhat different one. They both date to the turn of the last century, not 1940. They are portable call bells, probably for vacation homes or for sick room use to call a nurse or attendant. I believe the one you show is American as it takes the standard No. 6 battery. The other one is definitely English. There is a pencilled note on the bottom of the lid, "Brought from London, Engl, July-1971 Wm. G. Ott," There is also an ornate brass tag on the top that reads, "M.DuPre, from her Affectionate Friends of the Y.W.C.A. Dec 6th 1904" There is also a partial paper label on the bottom with the words The Depositories and Canterbury and the number K3810.
  .......... Daniel Sohn, Baltimore MD, U.S.A., 28th of March 2012
  
  

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