The Liberty Bell and its yoke are a very dark brownish-bronze color. Is this the way the Bell appeared when first made, or is it the result of aging? If the latter, what color was the Bell originally?
Backstory for the curious: I'm an artist working on a commissioned painting of the Liberty Bell in the belfry of Independence Hall, set in ~1850. Here's a rough draft of the painting: http://tinyurl.com/opc9lq5 .(I've since realized the bell was too large in this draft). And a link to my blog posts about the painting: http://calliryan.weebly.com/work-current/category/liberty-bell-painting .
Okay, the Liberty Bell is under the care of the National Park Service, and one little known fact about the national park system is that it employs a LOT of archivists. Why don't you shoot them an email with this question? This is the sort of basic historical question about the bell they should be able to answer pretty easily.
(Also, re: the size, no kidding! I visited the Liberty Bell in January and I was rather underwhelmed.)
I'm not sure from a historical standpoint but from a practical standpoint It is safest to assume it has always had the dark brown patina.
Because the Bell is Bronze it would have been a shiny gold color just after casting. But Bronze exposed to the elements quickly gets "ugly" green streaks. To keep it shiny and gold in color you have to constantly polish it which is difficult and time consuming. When the bell was first cast in England it likely had an artificial brown bronze patina applied. This was a pretty common practice at the time in Europe. When the bell was recast in the US it may not have had the same patina applied. In which case the bell would have been nice and shiny for about 3 months after delivery and then would be streaked with green. Eventually the brown bronze patina would form but in the meantime the bell wouldn't be a great subject for painting.
If you are painting the bell as if it first arrived you can use a shiny gold. But for any time after that I would go with the attractive uniform brown bronze. Otherwise for possible historical accuracy you could go with a shiny gold streaked with ugly green but it probably wouldn't be received well.
In 1985 the NPS began polishing the bell with wax because nitrates (likely from fertilizer) were causing the inside and underside of the bell to develop a green patina.