Bellringer of Caernarvon in costume of trade by John Cambrian Rowland

Every item she wears is a code. John Cambrian Rowland's Bellringer of Caernarvon in costume of trade (1870), at the National Library of Wales, is a painted portrait by an artist who made his name publishing prints.

The tall black hat marks a bell-ringer's office. The diamond shawl is traditional Welsh weave. The brass bell was her instrument: bell-ringers were paid parish officers who marked the hours and called the town to church.

Born in 1819 in rural Ceredigion, Rowland was Aberystwyth's first professional artist. His Welsh costume prints, published in 1848, became the standard images of 19th-century Welsh life. This painted portrait is rarer.

She holds a cane and a bell. Behind her, Caernarfon Castle anchors the scene. Every detail carries meaning. And the face at its center belongs to a real woman whose name we have lost.