Index to carillons and chimes by DeSmithske

The De Smithske foundry provided bells for various carillons and chimes throughout Denmark. See the bottom of this page for additional historical notes on the origin and development of this bellfoundry and on the various names used by it.

The sites are listed in order by year of installation.
Following the year is an indication of the founder's contribution to the instrument:

C = Complete instrument
F = Foundation; originally a complete installation, later expanded
I = Intermediate expansion
E = Final expansion to current state
R = Recast/replaced
T = Re-tuned existing bells at the foundry
K = Replaced keyboard

Finally, there is an indication of the type of instrument:

  trad      - carillon with traditional keyboard
  trad*     - carillon with traditional keyboard now,
              but with other mechanism and/or chime size at the date cited
  non-trad  - carillon with non-traditional mechanism
  non-trad* - carillon with non-traditional mechanism,
              but chime size at the date cited
  mech?     - carillon with unknown mechanism
  chime     - chime (any mechanism)
  (...)...  - instrument was replaced; link is to the same site
  [...]     - instrument is defunct; link is to "sites that are no more"

Some links to pages about the history of this foundry can be found after the index.

NOTE: This index currently includes only installations in the Americas. Eventually it will have a wider geographic coverage.

De Smithske, Ålborg (Aalborg), Denmark

HILLEROD                      : DENMARK - S  1915 R  trad
   Slot (Royal Castle)
GEDSTED                       : DENMARK - J  1922 C  chime
   Kirken
KOBENHAVN - VF                : DENMARK - S  1928 C  trad
   Vor Frelsers Kirke
   (Church of Our Saviour)
AALBORG - B                   : DENMARK - J  1934 C  trad*
   Sct.Budolfi Domkirke
   (St.Botolph Cathedral)
SONDERBORG                    : DENMARK      1952 F  non-trad*
   Sct.Mariæ Kirke
TORSHAVN                      : DENMARK -FI  1952 C  chime
   Havnar Kirke / Domkirken

Historical Notes:

The De Smithske foundry operated in Ålborg under the direction of C.F.L.Sørensen from 1887 until his death in 1926. It must have produced other products at first, because the earliest known bell (or the oldest surviving in the 1990s) is dated 1896. From 1926 to 1931, the foundry continued with brothers K.T.A.Sørensen and E.Sørensen, with directors Brog and Egenfeldt. From 1931, the Sørensen brothers operated their own foundry in Brønderslev. The De Smithsky foundry continued to produce bells until 1964.
Source: Kirkeklokken in Danmark, Hans Nyholm, 1996

Links:

Kirkeklokken in Danmark lists church bells in Denmark, but omits carillons and chimes except to the extent that they contain swinging bells for church use. Also omitted (with rare exceptions) are clock bells in civic buildings, etc. Nevertheless, more than 500 bells from this foundry are listed.

This index page was built from the database on 7-Aug-06 and last revised on 20-Sep-06.

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