Le Bourdon de Table in raw lathe-turned bronze, hung on a braided rawhide cord

Twenty-two seconds is a specification.

Le Bourdon de Table, cast in Saône river sand and tuned on the lathe to a fixed pitch. The largest holds one note for twenty-two seconds — long enough to cross the room and come back.

Choose your bell
Pour of October
18 bells · one crucible
D4 · 293.7
Ø 124 mm · 1,350 g
Raw · smoked · verdigris
Measured in the tuning room,
quai Saint-Vincent 28 · Lyon

One bell,
three pitches.

Same profile, same thick wall, three diameters. For a desk, a dining room, an entryway or a chapel — domestic and architectural commissions, one bell at a time. The note is decided before the pour; the lathe removes metal until it locks to the fork.

Diameter & pitch
Finish — same price in all three patinas

Bright golden-amber, still carrying the lathe’s concentric rings. It darkens where hands touch it.

Height
Weight
Sustain
Hangs on
Pitch
€340Finished by hand · one of 18 this month
Reserve lot
Macro of raw lathe-turned CuSn22 bell bronze, fine concentric turning rings catching the light

78 parts copper.
22 parts tin.
Nothing else.

Bell bronze, CuSn22. Melted at 1,140 °C in a crucible fired once a month. No lead, no zinc, no filler. A bell that rings for twenty-two seconds is mostly a question of what is not in it.

Alloy
CuSn22 · 78 / 22
Melt
1,140 °C
Mould
Rammed river sand
Core
Loam, birch board
Cooling
48 hours
Tuning
Lathe, against a fork
Crown
Cold-struck
Pour
18 bells, monthly

Fourteen days,
five stages.

One crucible, eighteen flasks, one pour a month. The bell is tuned after it is cast, not before.

BIRCH PROFILE BOARD PLANCHE À TROUSSER LOAM CORE SPINDLE Ø 124 SWEEP 1:1 · AT THE QUAY

Sweep the core Days 1–4

A loam core is built on the spindle and swept with a birch profile board — the planche à trousser — then dried slowly by the furnace flue until it rings hollow under the knuckle.

Molten 78/22 bronze poured from a ladle into a rammed river-sand flask

Pour at 1,140 °C Day 5

The crucible is tapped at 1,140 °C and ladled into rammed river-sand flasks. Eighteen flasks, eighteen bells, then the furnace is banked until next month.

A blackened sand jacket cracked open to reveal a freshly cast bronze bell

Break the jacket Day 7

Forty-eight hours of slow cooling, then the blackened sand jacket is cracked away. What comes out is dull, sand-crusted and silent — a bell in shape only.

A bell on the horizontal lathe with a tuning fork held against its rim

Tune the soundbow Days 8–11

On the horizontal lathe, microns are shaved from the inner soundbow until the fundamental and the minor-third hum lock to the fork. The note is cut into the bronze, not cast into it.

The finished bell in the selected patina

Patina & stamp Days 12–14

The finish, the forged iron clapper on rawhide, and the cold-stamped crown: month, lot, frequency, maker's mark. Then the bell is weighed, boxed and recorded.

The crown is
the certificate.

Every bell is cold-stamped on the top crown: the pouring month, its lot number from 01/18 to 18/18, the exact fundamental in hertz and the maker's mark. Choose a lot for this month's pour.

Lot

The pitch belongs to the size; the lot belongs to the bell. A 07/18 in D4 and a 07/18 in A4 are two different casts from two different months.

Reserve lot

Reserve one
of eighteen.

The slip records the exact bell you are asking for: size, pitch, finish and lot. Prepare it, print it and bring it to the quay on a Friday — or keep it as your reference until the pour.

Nothing is charged here

No payment is taken online. The foundry confirms the lot, the finish and the collection or delivery on the Friday.

Fonderie Mercier Réservation · Le Bourdon de Table
Pour of
October 2026
Lot
Bell
Pitch
Finish
Name
Note
Price

28 quai Saint-Vincent
69001 Lyon
Fridays 14:00–18:00

FonteLyon

Selection changed — revise the slip so it matches the bell again.

The foundry workshop on the Saône quay in Lyon, with the footbridge in the background

Fridays,
14:00–18:00.

The foundry and the tuning room are open every Friday afternoon. Come and strike a bell, or listen while one is tuned. Four minutes on foot from the Passerelle Saint-Vincent, at the foot of Croix-Rousse.

Fonderie Mercier
28 quai Saint-Vincent
69001 Lyon, France
Open foundry & tuning room
Fridays 14:00–18:00
LA SAÔNE CROIX-ROUSSE QUAI SAINT-VINCENT PASSERELLE SAINT-VINCENT 28 · FONDERIE MERCIER
4 min from the passerelleFacing the Saône