Charles Davidson Bell

Charles Davidson Bell FRSE (22 October 1813 – 7 April 1882) was a Scottish-born artist who spent the majority of his life in the Cape Colony. In addition to serving as the Surveyor-General of the colony, he was also a heraldist who designed several of the Cape Colony's medals and stamps.

Life

Born on 22 October 1813 at Newhall, Crail, Fife, Scotland, he was educated locally at St Andrews University.

Bell left Scotland and sailed to South Africa, landing at the Cape of Good Hope in 1830 and through his uncle Sir John Bell, Secretary to the Cape Government, was given a post in the civil service. He was appointed as expedition artist on Dr. Andrew Smith's two-year journey north as far as the Limpopo in 1834. He went from Acting Clerk of the Legislative Council in 1838, to Assistant Surveyor-General in 1843, to Surveyor-General in 1848.

Appointed to the Postal Enquiry Board in 1852, he designed the well-known Cape of Good Hope triangular stamp, the first of that shape. It became extremely rare and consequently much sought after by philatelists. His design of rectangular stamps remained in use until 1902.

Many of his sketches and paintings show a whimsical sense of humour, though his sensitive portrayals of the mixed population of Cape Town and of the tribes he encountered on the Smith expedition to the north, have become an invaluable record of life in 19th-century South Africa. The return of many of his paintings from England to South Africa in 1978, gave art historians a fresh appreciation of his work and greater insight into that period of Cape history. However, in his essay "Alcohol and Art", Russel Viljoen, professor in history at the University of South Africa wrote:

Bell also made an important contribution to heraldry in South Africa. Throughout his residence at the Cape, he copied old Dutch/Afrikaner coats of arms from memorials, seals, stained glass windows, and other artefacts, and in 1861 he advertised his intention of publishing them in book form. The book did not see the light of day, but he later gave the manuscript, the drawings, and his notes to his brother-in-law Daniel Krynauw. Krynauw built up his own heraldry collection, and after his death, the two collections were placed in a Cape Town museum, from where they were transferred to the South African Library (now National Library of South Africa - Cape Town Campus) in 1946. The material in the Bell-Krynauw Collection was eventually published in Cornelis Pama's Die Wapens van die Ou Afrikaanse Families (1959), and his later heraldry books.

Bell designed the arms of the South African College (now University of Cape Town). He also designed the "three anchors" badge of the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society ("Old Mutual"), of which he was chairman at one time. A large number of his originals hang in the Library of Parliament in Cape Town, the University of the Witwatersrand and the Africana Museum in Johannesburg. The book Travels in the Interior of South Africa (1868) by James Chapman, was illustrated by Bell. His Reports of the Surveyor-General, Charles D. Bell Esq., on the copper fields of Little Namaqualand (1855) was written after a three-month visit to the area. He gave his name to the town of Bellville in the Cape, and Bell, a small village between Peddie and Hamburg, near the mouth of the Keiskamma River in the Eastern Cape.

John Bell was a traveller and the eldest son of Charles Davidson Bell. Between 1861 and 1862 he accompanied Henry Samuel Chapman from Cape Town to Walvis Bay, through Hereroland to Lake Ngami and back to the Cape Colony via Shoshong, Kuruman and Hopetown. He was married to Margaret Roome in 1865 and died in 1878 in England.

Death and legacy

Charles Bell was a friend of Andrew Geddes Bain and was a pall-bearer at his funeral in 1864.

After his retirement in 1872 he returned to Scotland in 1873. This collection is run by Bell’s grandson, Professor Charles Manning. on 7 July 1859. Helena Isabella Bell born 31 May 1860 in Cape Town Alexander Bell born 15 September 1861 in Cape Town Anthony Bell born 9 February 1863 in Cape Town David Duncan Traill Bell born 21 April 1864 Cape Town died 14 December 1865 Catherine Susan Bell born 11 May 1865 Cape Town died 13 September 1865

Artwork

Notes and references

Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa (vol.2) (NASOU Cape Town 1970) The Life and Work of Charles Bell – Phillida Brooke Simons (Fernwood Press, Cape Town 1998) Die Wapens van die Ou Afrikaanse Families – C. Pama (1959) Heraldry of South African Families – C. Pama (1972) Die Groot Afrikaanse Familienaamboek – C. Pama (1983).