On longcase clocks with two bells striking in the "Dutch fashion",
the large bell is used for the low-tone strike on the hour,
and the small bell is used for the high-tone strike on the
half-hour. The half-hour strike is set to strike the number
of hours before the hour.
The main reason for that is that in Dutch, as an example,
half past four is said "half five".
In the vast majority of longcase clocks following this
fashion, there are two bells struck by two separate hammers,
which in turn are activated by their own levers and their
own pins on either side of the pin wheel.
The hammer arbor lever is mobile and this is what selects
indirectly which bell to strike.
In this clock however, it is the bells that tilt up or down
to select the correct strike. They are fitted on a loose
arbor connected straight down to a cam on the cannon pinion.
Belgian longcase clock by Jean Hellebuyck à Gand,
dated 1798 on the dial.

Another way to strike two different bells:
the hammer post is horizontal and tilts
up or downstriking the right bell. The selection is made by a
single wire.

Belgian 30-hour longcase clock by
Roscamps à Braine-le-Comte.

Yet another way of striking the 'Dutch fashion'
on a Belgian 30-hour 19th-C longcase.
This time the half-hour bell is simply
moved ever so slightly in front of the
hour bell by a lever activated by a pin
on the hour wheel.

Unusual L-shaped hammer spring
on this Dutch 18th-C longcase
by Livinus Barzeele in Oudenbur.

Double warning system on this movement,
allowing the long arm to command a
musical box on the hour only.
Both lifting pieces act on the same
warning wheel, so the strike will only
start when the carillon has finished its
course and lifted the steel lifting piece
back in position.
Louis XV-era Cartel with musical box by
Jean-François de Beefe à Liège.

This countwheel knife is coming
through a fully-enclosed window
on this French Louis-Philippe-era
mahogany portico clock.

Very interesting strike mechanism on this 18th Century
Capucine clock (commonly considered the predecessor
of the carriage clocks).
The cam on the left of the snail allows for double strike
on the hour and one single strike on the half hour.
Note also the double-sided rack to allow for repeat and
the beautiful shape of the gathering pallet.
This movement is also featuring a pull-wind alarm.

Double-sided gathering pallet on a five-sided arbor end.
Belgian longcase clock, 18th Century, by
Nicolas de Beefe à Malines

Pressed-in steel screw thread on the bell post.
French Empire Portico Clock.

Interesting variation of the 19th-Century French
rack strike. There is no gathering pallet, insteadthe rack is raised by an articulated piece mounted
on the strike arbor and controlled by the lifting
piece.

Movement signed Brocot, thermometer clock.
This is the late version of the strike model "Y"
built by Antoine-Gabriel Brocot around 1850.

Beautiful double-bell quarter strike
with rack and pull-down
repeater with separate snail and rack.
18th-Century Louis XV Neuchâtelloise cartel clock.

Beautiful snake-like push-spring
for the double hammer-action on
the same Neuchâtelloise as above.