PAGAN CELTIC ART IN THE EARLY IRON AGE
TECHNICAL PROCESSES EMPLOYED DURING THE EARLY IRON AGE IN BRITAIN
The fact must never be lost sight of that the picture presented
to our mind of any particular prehistoric stage of culture must
necessarily be extremely imperfect, since the extent of our knowledge
is limited entirely by the number of relics which specially favourable
circumstances have preserved from destruction. Of the textile
fabrics of the Late-Celtic period, for instance, hardly anything
is known, although we are certain that spinning and weaving must
have been extensively practised from the quantities of long-handled
weaving-combs, spindle-whorls, and loom-weights that have been found on
almost every inhabited site. A people who showed such a high capacity
for decorative design could not have failed to produce good artistic
effects by means of pattern-weaving.[264] What such textile patterns
may have been can only be guessed at by survivals (like the Scottish
tartans) or by ornament of a textile character occurring on objects
made of less perishable materials (like the step-pattern on a piece of
wood from the Glastonbury Marsh Village).
[264] “The cloth was covered with an infinite number of little squares
and lines as if it had been sprinkled with flowers, or was striped with
crossing bars which formed a chequered design. Their favourite colour
was red or a pretty crimson.” C. Elton’s _Origins of English History_,
p. 114, quoting Pliny and Diodorus Siculus.
The Celts had already become expert workers in metal before the close
of the Bronze Age; they could make beautiful hollow castings for the
chapes of their sword-sheaths; they could beat out bronze into thin
plates and rivet them together sufficiently well to form water-tight
caldrons; they could ornament their circular bronze shields and golden
diadems with repoussé patterns, consisting of corrugations and rows of
raised bosses; and they were not unacquainted with the art of engraving
on metal.
The Celt of the Early Iron Age attained to a still higher proficiency
in metallurgy than his predecessor of the Bronze Age. Casting in bronze
was applied to a much larger number of objects than before, such as—
Handles of swords and daggers.
Chapes of sword and dagger-sheaths.
Bridle-bits.
Harness-mountings and rings.
Chariot fittings.
Collars and armlets.
Handles of tankards and mirrors.
Spoon-like objects of unknown use.
Wrought-bronze was used for—
Sword and dagger-sheaths.
Shields and helmets.
Mountings of wooden buckets and tankards.
Caldrons and buckets.
Circular discs of unknown use.
The ornamental features of the objects of cast bronze were produced
chiefly during the process of moulding, although the surface was in
many cases further beautified afterwards by chasing, engraving, and
enamelling.
[Illustration: Late-Celtic Bronze Mirror from Trelan Bahow, Cornwall
Now in the British Museum]
Objects of wrought-bronze were usually decorated by means of repoussé
work, _i.e._ designs in relief hammered up from the back. Occasionally
enamel was added (as, for example, on the shield from the Thames, now
in the British Museum), in the form of small plaques fixed on with
rivets. In place of the more or less crude corrugations and rows of
raised pellets of the Bronze Age we get the most marvellous curved
surfaces and conchoids, executed with an unerring eye and a skill which
it would be difficult to surpass. The repoussé work of the Late-Celtic
period is seen in its greatest perfection on the circular discs of
unknown use[265] in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin,
and the British Museum.
Both cast and wrought objects of bronze were decorated with patterns
composed of finely engraved lines shaded in places with a peculiar
kind of cross-hatching or with dots. The mirror-backs,[266] the
sword-sheaths,[267] and the harness-rings[268] afford good examples of
this class of work.
[265] See p. 121.
[266] See list on p. 115.
[267] See list on p. 91; especially the one from Lisnacroghera.
[268] See list on p. 94; especially those from Polden Hill, Somerset.
[Illustration: Upper part of Bronze Sword-sheath from Hunsbury
Now in the Northampton Museum]
Brazing and soldering appear to have been unknown to the metalworkers
of the Late-Celtic period, as they pieced their metalwork together
by means of rivets. The practice of riveting was learnt from the
artificers who constructed the caldrons of the late Bronze Age
already referred to, and they, no doubt, in their turn, acquired their
knowledge from a foreign source. The bronze helmet from the Thames at
Waterloo Bridge, now in the British Museum, illustrates the riveting of
the Late-Celtic period at its best. The rivets generally have pointed
conical heads, producing a good decorative effect. The way in which
the different pieces of metal are held together is often ingeniously
disguised by making the rivet-heads form part of the ornament, or by
concealing the head behind a circular disc of enamel.
The evidence of both history and archæology tends to show that the
art of enamelling on metal was, in the first instance, a British one.
The historical evidence is confined to an oft-quoted passage from the
_Icones_ of Philostratus (a Greek sophist in the court of Julia Domna,
wife of the Emperor Severus), which is as follows:—
“They say that the barbarians who live in the ocean pour these
colours on heated brass, and that they adhere, become hard as
stone, and preserve the designs that are made upon them.”
Philostratus wrote this at the beginning of the third century A.D.; and
by “the barbarians who live in the ocean” (τοὺς ἐν Ὠκεανῷ βαρβάρους)
he no doubt meant the Britons rather than the Gauls, as some French
writers have assumed.[269]
[269] A. W. Franks in Kemble’s _Horæ Ferales_, p. 186.
The earliest enamels are those which occur on objects decorated in the
pure Late-Celtic style without any trace of Roman influence, such as—
Bridle-bits from Rise, near Hull, Yorkshire; and Birrenswark,
Dumfriesshire.
Harness-rings and mountings from—
Norton Suffolk.
Westhall Suffolk.
Alfriston Sussex.
Polden Hill Somersetshire.
London Middlesex.
Saham Toney Norfolk.
Uffizi Museum Florence.
British Museum Locality unknown.
Armlets from Castle Newe, Aberdeenshire; and Pitkelloney, Perthshire.
Handles of bowl from Barlaston, Staffordshire.
Next, in order of age, come objects which from their general form or
from the associations they were found in are known to belong to the
Romano-British period, but yet have Late-Celtic decoration upon them,
such as—
Harp-shaped fibulæ from Risingham, Northumberland,
River Tyne, in the Newcastle Museum.
S-shaped fibulæ from Norton, Yorkshire, and other places
(see list on p. 107).
Seal-box from Lincoln, in the British Museum.
Four-legged stand, with round hole in the top, from
Silchester, in the Reading Museum.
Lastly, there are survivals of the use of discs of Late-Celtic enamel
in the decoration of bowls of early Saxon, and therefore post-Roman,
age, the following examples of which have been found:—
_List of Localities where Bowls of the Saxon Period, but
with Late-Celtic enamelled decoration, have been found._
Crosthwaite (British Mus.) Cumberland.
Middleton Moor (Sheffield Mus.) Derbyshire.
Over-Haddon Derbyshire.
Benty Grange Derbyshire.
Chesterton (Warwick Mus.) Warwickshire.
Caistor (now lost) Lincolnshire.
Oxford (Pitt-Rivers Collection) Oxfordshire.
Needham Market (now lost) Suffolk.
Barrington (Sir John Evans’ Collection) Cambridgeshire.
Lullingstone (Sir W. Hart Dyke’s Collection) Kent.
Greenwich (Mr. J. Brent’s Collection) Kent.
Kingston Down Kent.
The hammer-headed pins, a list of which has already been given on page
108, are also instances of the use of Celtic enamel in post-Roman times.
* * * * *
Before going further it may be as well to say a few words about the art
of enamelling in general, so as to show the position occupied by the
Late-Celtic examples.
The term enamel is used to designate a particular kind of mixture
or paste which can be applied to the surface of metals or other
materials, so that when it has been vitrified by the application of
heat, and afterwards cooled, it forms a decoration of great beauty and
durability. The base of all enamels is a flux composed of silica (in
the shape of silver sand or powdered flint), red lead, and potash.
To this flux are added certain metallic oxides to produce different
colours, and, if necessary, oxide of tin to render it opaque. The
materials are mixed together, fused in a crucible, reduced to a fine
powder when cold, made into a paste with water, and then applied to the
surface of metal to be decorated. After vitrifaction in a furnace and
polishing, the enamel is complete.
Mr. A. W. Franks[270] divides enamels into the following classes:—
[270] Afterwards Sir Wollaston Franks; see _Glass and Enamel_, by J. B.
Waring and A. W. Franks.
(1) _Inlaid Enamel_, where the outlines are formed by
metal divisions.
(2) _Transparent Enamel_, where the outlines and all the
markings are produced by variations of depth in the
sculptured ground over which the vitreous material is
floated.
(3) _Painted Enamel_, where the outlines are made by a
difference in the tint of the enamel itself, which
completely conceals the metal base beneath.
The divisions between each of the colours in inlaid enamel are produced
in two different ways, namely:—
(_a_) _Champlevé Enamel_, where the field (_champ_) or area to be
occupied by each colour is dug out and removed (_levé_), so
as to leave a very narrow band of metal at the level of the
original surface to form the dividing line between the fields.
(_b_) _Cloisonné Enamel_, where the divisions or partitions
(_cloison_) between the fields consist of thin strips of metal
bent into the required shape and fixed to the surface to be
enamelled.
All the enamels of the Late-Celtic period belong to the _champlevé_
kind. The colours used are bright red, yellow and blue, and the designs
are more often curvilinear than not, like those on the repoussé
metalwork. The patterns were probably traced on the surface of the
metal to be decorated with a finely pointed instrument, and the hollows
to receive the enamel dug out with a scooping tool, in the case of
small work, or with a long thin chisel and a chaser’s hammer where the
work was larger.
[Illustration: CRUCIFORM HARNESS-MOUNTING OF BRONZE ENAMELLED. LOCALITY
UNKNOWN; NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
SCALE 1/1 LINEAR]
[Illustration: BRONZE ENAMELLED HARNESS-MOUNTING FROM POLDEN HILL,
SOMERSETSHIRE; NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
SCALE ¾ LINEAR]
The late Sir Wollaston Franks, than whom no better authority can be
quoted, always maintained the Celtic origin of the art of enamelling
in Western Europe, and gave the distinctive name of _opus Britannicum_
to the special kind of enamel which was produced in greater perfection
by the Celts inhabiting the British Isles than by any other people.
The art of enamelling in the purely Celtic style commenced before the
arrival of the Romans in this country, and after continuing throughout
the whole period of their occupation, survived for some centuries after
their departure from our shores. There are, however, numerous enamels
which, though very possibly of Celtic workmanship, are altogether
Roman as far as the ornamental patterns upon them are concerned. Dr.
Joseph Anderson has described an exquisitely enamelled patera of this
kind found in Linlithgowshire, and now in the Museum of Antiquities of
Edinburgh. He says of it:—[271]
[271] “Notice of an enamelled cup or patera of bronze found in
Linlithgowshire, recently purchased for the Museum,” in the _Proc. Ant.
Scot._, vol. xix., p. 45.
“Apart from the singular beauty of its decoration it is
possessed of this special interest, that it is the only
vessel of its kind and character known to exist in Scotland.
It is, however, one of a class of objects, which, though
few in number, are pretty widely distributed over the area,
which may be termed the outskirts of the Roman Empire,
towards the north and west—that is Britain, North Germany,
and Scandinavia. We look in vain for anything like it within
the area of the Roman Empire proper, and it may therefore
be regarded as a product of a culture of some portion of
the area of north-western Europe, where it was touched and
modified by the Roman culture.”
Other similar examples of enamelled vessels have been found at
Braughing,[272] near Standon, Herts; the Bartlow Hills,[273] Essex;
Maltbeck,[274] Denmark; and Pyrmont,[275] in the Rhine valley. In
addition to these we have two other enamelled vessels, but differing in
their style of ornament, one from Rudge,[276] Wilts, now in the Duke of
Northumberland’s private museum at Alnwick Castle, and the other from
Prickwillow,[277] Cambridgeshire, now in the British Museum.
[272] _Proc. Soc. Ant. Lond._, 2nd ser., vol. iv., p. 514.
[273] _Archæologia_, vol. xxvi., p. 300.
[274] _Mém. de la Soc. Royale des Antiquaires du Nord_, 1866-71, p. 151.
[275] _Jahrbücher des Vereins von Alterthumsfreunden in Rheinlande,
heft_ 38, p. 47.
[276] _Catal. of Mus. of R. Archæol. Inst. at Edinburgh_, 1856.
[277] _Archæologia_, vol. xxviii., p. 436.
Of the art of enamelling as carried on elsewhere than in Britain Dr.
Anderson says:—[278]
[278] _Loc. cit._, p. 49.
“The Gauls as well as the Britons—of the same Celtic
stock—practised enamel-working before the Roman conquest.
The enamel workshops of Bibracte, with their furnaces,
crucibles, moulds, polishing-stones, and with the crude
enamels in their various stages of preparation, have been
recently excavated from the ruins of the city destroyed
by Cæsar and his legions. But the Bibracte enamels are
the work of mere dabblers in the art compared with the
British examples. The home of the art was Britain, and
the style of the patterns as well as the associations in
which the objects decorated with it were found, demonstrate
with certainty that it had reached its highest stage of
indigenous development before it came in contact with the
Roman culture.”
A full account of the discoveries made at Bibracte will be found in J.
G. Bulliot’s _Fouilles de Mont Beuvray_. Several beautiful enamels have
been derived from the Belgo-Roman cemetery at Presles.
Romano-British enamels, without distinctively Celtic patterns upon
them, have been dug up at many places in Great Britain, but more
especially at Prickwillow.
We shall see in a subsequent chapter how the divergent spiral patterns
on the circular discs of enamel used to decorate the bronze bowls of
the end of the Late-Celtic period were transferred bodily to the pages
of the early Irish illuminated MSS. of the Gospels.
Another method of ornamenting metalwork besides enamelling was by
means of settings of different materials fixed in place by small pins
or rivets. As instances we have the bronze shield from the River
Witham,[279] now in the British Museum, set with red coral; the bronze
fibula from Datchet, Oxon,[280] set with amber and blue glass; and
most curious of all, a bronze object of unknown use from Carlton,[281]
Northamptonshire, now in the Northampton Museum, inlaid with portions
of the stem of a fossil encrinite.
A very effective kind of decorative metalwork may be made out of wire,
bent so as to form a series of loops, of which we have British examples
in the bracelets from the Early Iron Age burial in Deepdale,[282]
Derbyshire; and a foreign specimen in a fibula from the cemetery of the
La Tène period at Jezerine,[283] in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
[279] J. Kemble’s _Horæ Ferales_, p. 14, and pl. 15.
[280] _Proc. Soc. Ant. Lond._, ser. 2, vol. xv., p. 191.
[281] _Ibid._, ser. 2, vol. xvii., p. 166.
[282] _The Reliquary_ for 1897, p. 101.
[283] R. Munro’s _Boznia-Herzegovina_, p. 170.
More or less akin to the looped wirework just mentioned are certain
gold and silver chains made of fine wire. Dr. Arthur Evans has gone
pretty fully into this subject in his paper in the _Archæologia_ (vol.
lv., p. 394), describing the find of gold ornaments at Broighter, near
Limavady, Co. Londonderry, amongst which were two chains of the kind
referred to. The art of making these chains was no doubt of foreign
origin, as they have been found in Etruscan tombs of the fifth century
B.C. in Italy; with burials of the La Tène period in the cemetery
of Jezerine, in Bosnia; and in a tomb in the Gaulish cemetery of
Ornovasso, in the province of Turin. In Britain such chains were used
during the period of the Roman occupation for the attachment of fibulæ
worn in pairs, as in the case of those from Chorley,[284] Lancashire,
and from Newcastle-on-Tyne,[285] Northumberland. We shall see in a
subsequent chapter that the manufacture of these finely wrought chains
of silver survived in early Christian times in Ireland, the best-known
examples being those attached to the Tara brooch,[286] and to an
enamelled pin from Clonmacnois.[287] With regard to the date of the
chains, Dr. Arthur Evans says:—[288]
“It thus appears that these fine chains were in use among
the Celtic peoples during the first two centuries before
and after our era.[289] In Britain, however, the finest
class is, as far as I am aware, confined to the latter
half of this period; the chains attached to the earlier
British fibulæ, like the one in the British Museum from
the Warren,[290] near Folkestone, which may date from the
second century B.C., being, like those referred to
from the Champagne[291] cemeteries, of simpler and coarser
construction.”
[284] _The Reliquary_ for 1901, p. 198.
[285] _Ibid._ for 1895, p. 157.
[286] M. Stokes’ _Early Christian Art in Ireland_, p. 75.
[287] _Jour. R. Soc. Ant. of Ireland_, ser. 5, vol. i., p. 318.
[288] _Archæologia_, vol. lv., p. 396.
[289] Dr. A. Evans appears to have forgotten the Christian survivals in
Ireland.
[290] _The Reliquary_ for 1901, p. 197.
[291] The coarser chains are made of ordinary circular or oval links,
sometimes double (see illustrations given in the _Dictionnaire
Archéologique de la Gaule_ of those from the Marnian cemeteries).
Ornamental ironwork of the Late-Celtic period is extremely rare, either
because the smiths were too busily employed in making weapons for the
warrior and tools for the artisan to devote their time to decorative
work, or because the specimens of their handiwork have disappeared in
consequence of the perishable nature of the material of which they
were made. Fortunately, however, the fire-dogs from Capel Garmon,[292]
now at Colonel Wynne Finch’s house at Voelas, are still in existence
to show us what fine ornamental ironwork the Welsh smiths of the
Romano-British period were capable of producing.
Turning now from the metalwork to the pottery of the Late-Celtic
period, we find it to consist of unglazed vessels made on a wheel,
fired in a kiln, and ornamented either by mouldings or by patterns
engraved on the surface with a pointed instrument. The technical
processes employed in its manufacture do not seem to have differed
essentially from those of the Romano-British potters, except that
slip-ware was unknown. As far as I am aware, no painted pottery like
that from Mont Beuvray[293] (Bibracte), nor vessels incrusted with
pebbles and polished with graphite like the one from Plouhinec[294]
(Finistère) now in M. Paul du Chatellier’s collection at the Château de
Kernuz, near Quimper, have yet been discovered in this country.
[292] _Archæologia Cambrensis_, ser. 6, vol. i., p. 39.
[293] See J. G. Bulliot’s _Fouilles de Mont Beuvray._
[294] See _Revue Archéologique_ for 1883, p. 11.
As far as the existing evidence goes no ornamental glasswork was made
during the Late-Celtic period in Britain except certain beads and
armlets already described. The technical process of manufacturing
these beads consisted in twisting together fine rods of different
coloured glass, and then bending the composite rod into loops round a
mandril so as to form the bead.
[Illustration: Late-Celtic Pottery from the Glastonbury Lake Village]
The art of the ornamental worker in wood in the Late-Celtic period is
displayed at its best in the tankards, buckets, and tubs of which,
fortunately, a few interesting specimens have been preserved. The
tankard from Trawsfynydd,[295] Merionethshire, now in the Liverpool
Museum, shows great ingenuity of construction, the staves of which it
is composed being kept together at the bottom by a corrugated wire
let into the ends of the staves. Another tankard, belonging to Mr.
T. Layton,[296] F.S.A., has the staves fastened together with wooden
dowels and pins.
[295] _Archæologia Cambrensis_, ser. 5, vol. xiii., p. 212.
[296] _Archæologia_, vol. lii., p. 359.
We have already described how the engraved patterns were produced on
the ornamental woodwork from the Glastonbury Marsh Village by a finely
pointed instrument, and afterwards burnt in.
Ornamental objects were also made out of bone and Kimmeridge shale
during the Late-Celtic period, but there is nothing special to call for
any comment in the technical methods employed, except to mention that
the patterns on the bone objects were often engraved by means of a pair
of compasses, and that the vessels of Kimmeridge shale were turned on a
lathe.
Of the basketry in which the Celts excelled in the time of Cæsar[297]
no specimens are now extant, but no doubt their natural talent for
decorative art showed itself in this native industry of Britain, as in
all others.
[297] C. Elton’s _Origins of English History_, p. 122.
LEADING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LATE-CELTIC STYLE OF ART
Once the eye of a trained archæologist has become familiar with the
general appearance of the art products of the Late-Celtic school, it
is comparatively easy for him to recognise other products of the same
school almost by intuition; but he would find it a much more difficult
task if he were asked to define exactly what the peculiarities are
by which he is enabled to distinguish this particular style from any
other. Most of the decorative elements composing the style are of so
fantastic and original a nature as to impress themselves first on the
retina of the eye, and then on the mind; yet, on that very account,
they seem to elude the descriptive powers of the writer. The motives
employed are neither purely geometrical in character nor have they
been obviously arrived at by conventionalising natural forms, but are
something between the two, being (like the designs on the ancient
British coins) the result of successive copying. We will, however,
notwithstanding the difficulties that have been pointed out, endeavour
to analyse the decoration of the Late-Celtic period as far as it is
possible to do so.
Unlike the art of the Bronze Age, the art of the Late-Celtic period
does not appear to have been in any way influenced by religious
symbolism, and therefore must be looked upon as purely decorative. The
designs may be divided into three classes as regards the method of
their execution, namely:—
(1) Designs engraved on a flat surface.
(2) Designs in relief on a flat surface.
(3) Designs in the round.
The designs themselves may be classified as follows:—
(1) Anthropomorphic designs.
(2) Zoömorphic designs.
(3) Designs derived from foliage.
(4) Curvilinear geometrical designs.
(5) Rectilinear geometrical designs.
Anthropomorphic and zoömorphic designs are extremely rare in
Late-Celtic art in Great Britain, and the two best-known examples—the
buckets from Marlborough[298] and Aylesford[299]—have, according to
Dr. Arthur Evans, been imported from Gaul. The Marlborough bucket is
encircled by four horizontal metal bands, the upper three of which are
decorated with human heads and pairs of animals in repoussé work. The
projections at each side of the rim, to which the crossbar at the top
is attached, have pairs of human heads upon them. The mountings of the
Aylesford bucket consist of three bronze bands, the lower two of which
are plain and the uppermost one ornamented with pairs of animals and a
peculiar kind of scrollwork. Each of the attachments for the handle at
the top has upon it a single human head surmounted by a sort of crested
helmet.
[298] Sir R. C. Hoare’s _Ancient Wilts_, vol. ii., p. 34, and W.
Cunnington’s _Catal. of Stourhead Coll. in Devizes Museum_, p. 88.
[299] _Archæologia_, vol. lii., p. 374.
The style of the art of the two buckets is the same, and corresponds in
some respects with that of the Gaulish coins,[300] and in others with
that of the sword-sheaths from La Tène[301] and the bronze _situlæ_
from Hallstatt, Watsch, and Certosa.[302] Dr. Arthur Evans has dealt
so exhaustively with the details of these buckets and the origins
of the art they exhibit in his paper on the Aylesford find in the
_Archæologia_,[303] that there is really little more to be said on the
subject. It may, however, be worth while directing attention to the
scrolls hanging down from the mouths of one of the pairs of beasts on
the Marlborough bucket. Anyone unacquainted with the origin of these
scrolls would probably mistake them for the animal’s tongue protruding
from its mouth, but on comparing the designs on the Marlborough bucket
with those on the _situlæ_ just referred to, the scrolls will be seen
to be simply degraded copies of the branch of a tree on which the
animal is feeding. The art metalworkers who made the _situlæ_ were, in
fact, in the habit of using a simple convention for emphasising the
difference between the herbivorous and carnivorous animals by showing,
in one case, the branch of a tree, and in the other the leg of its prey
protruding from its mouth. The Celtic copyists were either ignorant
of this convention or disregarded it, so that in their hands both the
branches and legs were soon converted into meaningless scrolls bearing
hardly any resemblance to the original. Throughout the whole range of
Celtic art there is displayed a tendency when dealing with plants and
animals to transform first the details and afterwards the whole thing
represented into curvilinear geometrical ornament.
[300] _Dictionnaire Archéologique de la Gaule._
[301] E. Vouga, _Les Helvètes à La Tène_.
[302] Illustrated in the second edition of Dr. R. Munro’s
_Boznia-Herzegovina_, p. 407.
[303] Vol. lii., p. 360.
Besides the buckets just described, there are a few other examples of
zoömorphic designs in Late-Celtic art, amongst which are the small
bronze figures of animals found at Hounslow,[304] Middlesex, now
in the British Museum; the bronze armlet, terminating in serpents’
heads, from the Culbin Sands,[305] Elginshire; the knife-handle,
terminating in a bull’s head, from Birdlip,[306] Gloucestershire;
the iron fire-dogs,[307] with uprights terminating in horned beasts’
heads, from Mount Bures, Essex, Hay Hill, Cambridgeshire, and
Shefford, Bedfordshire; the horned bronze helmet from Torrs,[308]
Kirkcudbrightshire, now at Abbotsford; the swine’s head from
Liechestown,[309] Banffshire, now in the Banff Museum; and the bull’s
head from Ham Hill,[310] Somerset, in the Taunton Museum.
[304] _Proc. Soc. Ant. Lond._, ser. 2, vol. iii., p. 90.
[305] Dr. J. Anderson’s _Scotland in Pagan Times: Iron Age_, p. 156.
[306] _Trans. Bristol and Gloucestersh. Archæol. Soc._, vol. v., p. 137.
[307] _Archæologia Cambrensis_, ser. 6, vol. i., p. 41.
[308] Dr. J. Anderson’s _Scotland in Pagan Times: Iron Age_, p. 113.
[309] _Ibid._, p. 117.
[310] _Proc. Somersetsh. Archæol. Soc._, ser. 3, vol. viii., p. 33.
[Illustration: Engraved Ornament on Late-Celtic Wooden Tub found at the
Glastonbury Lake Village]
[Illustration: Ornament on backs of handles of pair of Late-Celtic
Spoons from Weston, near Bath
Scale 1/1 linear]
The heads of the bull on the knife-handle from Birdlip, and the
beasts on the fire-dogs from Hay Hill and Shefford, have horns with
round knobs on the end of each. Beasts with knobbed horns of this
kind are represented on the Scandinavian gold bracteates[311] of
the Early Iron Age, generally associated with the swastika symbol.
Similar horns are to be seen on the helmet of a small bronze figure
found in Denmark;[312] on a figure depicted on the silver bowl from
Gundestrup,[313] Jutland; and on the handles of gold vessels from
Rönninge,[314] Boeslund,[315] and Fyen,[316] Denmark. The horns
probably have some religious significance.
[311] Prof. G. Stevens’ _Old Northern Runic Monuments_.
[312] J. J. A. Worsaae’s _Industrial Arts of Denmark_, p. 109.
[313] Sophus Müller in _Nordiske Fortidsminder_, pt. 2, pl. 10.
[314] A. P. Madsen’s _Bronze Age_, ii., pl. 25.
[315] _Industrial Arts of Denmark_, p. 105.
[316] P. B. Du Chaillu’s _Viking Age_, vol. i., p. 97.
Foliage so slightly conventionalised as to be easily recognised as
such cannot be said to exist in Late-Celtic art, yet the foliageous
origin of many of the designs at once betrays itself in the undulating
curves with scrolls repeated at regular intervals on each side of what
may be called the stem-line. We cannot select any better examples as
illustrating this than the two beautiful bronze sword-sheaths from the
crannog at Lisnacroghera,[317] Co. Antrim. Here the portions of the
designs which represent the principal stem consist of two lines running
close together parallel to each other until they reach the point where
a smaller stem branches off, when they diverge. The smaller stems, like
the principal stem, consist of parallel lines running close together,
and these, again, diverge to form what represents the leaf. The ends of
the leaves terminate in small spirals and their general shape resembles
that of what are known as arabesques. We thus get the long sweeping
=S=-shaped curves and the alternate contractions and expansions of the
space between the two boundary lines which are common to nearly all
Late-Celtic ornament. Now, for some inscrutable reason, the natural
forms of plant life never seem to have appealed to the Celtic mind in
the way they did, for instance, to the ecclesiastical sculptors of
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Consequently the designs which
were in the first instance copied from foliage soon became transformed
into a succession of beautiful flamboyant curves, pleasing to the eye
unquestionably, but suggesting but little to the mind as to their
meaning. In reference to this, Dr. Arthur Evans remarks:—[318]
[317] _Jour. R. Hist. and A. A. of Ireland_, ser. 4, vol. vi., pp.
384-90. The decoration of a wooden tub found at the Glastonbury Marsh
Village affords another very good instance of a Late-Celtic pattern
derived from foliage.
[318] _Archæologia_, vol. lv., p. 404.
[Illustration: UPPER PART OF BRONZE SWORD-SHEATH, FROM LISNACROGHERA,
CO. ANTRIM; NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM]
[Illustration: LOWER PART OF BRONZE SWORD-SHEATH, FROM LISNACROGHERA,
CO. ANTRIM; NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM]
“The tendency of all Late-Celtic art was to reduce all
naturalistic motives borrowed by it from the classical
world to geometrical schemes.... Yet the whole history of
Late-Celtic art instructs us that this geometrical scheme,
elaborate as it is, was originally based on ornaments of a
naturalistic kind.”
Once the foliageous origin of the flamboyant patterns was lost sight of
or disregarded, it became easy to elaborate fresh designs by placing
the forms derived from the leaves and stems of plants in all sorts of
unnatural positions relatively to each other, as, for instance, on
the pair of bronze spoon-like objects from Weston, near Bath, which
are now in the Edinburgh Museum of Antiquities, and in a particular
class of pierced ornaments, several of which are illustrated in L.
Lindenschmit’s _Die Alterthümer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit_.[319]
[319] Vol. i., pt. x., pl. 6; vol. ii., pt. viii., pl. 5; vol. iii.,
pt. vii., pl. 6. Compare these with the ornament found at Silchester,
illustrated in the _Archæologia_, vol. liv., p. 470.
A still further transformation resulted from the practice of drawing
the various curves by means of a pair of compasses, and once this
mechanical method had been adopted the temptation to introduce complete
circles of different sizes into the designs would follow as a matter
of course. This is very clearly seen on the ornamented bone spatulæ
from Slieve-na-Caillighe, Co. Meath, already referred to as having been
found with a pair of iron compasses; and also on backs of the bronze
mirrors, of which a list is given on p. 115. It is most remarkable that
the Late-Celtic artists should have succeeded in doing what has baffled
everyone else before or since, namely, in producing “sweet” curves by
means of a combination of circular arcs.
[Illustration: Engraved Bone object from Slieve-na-Caillighe, Co.
Meath]
[Illustration: HANDLE OF LATE-CELTIC BRONZE TANKARD FROM TRAWSFYNYDD,
MERIONETHSHIRE; NOW IN THE MAYER MUSEUM, LIVERPOOL]
[Illustration: BRIDLE-BIT OF BRONZE ENAMELLED FROM RISE, NEAR HULL, NOW
IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
SCALE ½ LINEAR]
Lastly, when the patterns which had thus been evolved from natural
foliage on a flat surface were transferred to the relief of the
repoussé metalwork, and raised bosses, volutes, and round plaques of
enamel substituted for the complete flat circles, an entirely new
style of decoration was brought into existence. The most appropriate
name that can be given to this particular kind of Celtic ornament
is _flamboyant_ work. The French word _flamboyer_ means to blaze,
and the Gothic window tracery of the fourteenth century, in which
=S=-shaped curves predominate, is called _flamboyant_ on account of its
resemblance to tongues of flame. The handle of the Late-Celtic tankard
from Trawsfynydd,[320] Merionethshire, now in the Liverpool Museum, if
reproduced in stone on a larger scale, would certainly be mistaken for
a piece of Gothic tracery, so that it may almost be looked upon as a
blasphemous anticipation of Christian art by the Pagan Celt.
[320] _Archæologia Cambrensis_, ser. 5, vol. xiii., p. 212.
The best examples of the Late-Celtic flamboyant work, for purposes of
study, are the bronze shield from the river Thames, a circular disc
of unknown use from Ireland, both in the British Museum; the gold
collar from Limavady, Co. Londonderry, in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy, Dublin; and the Æsica fibula, in the Newcastle Museum. There
is also a disc in the Dublin Museum of similar design to the one in the
British Museum, which is worth comparing with it.
The whole design of the shield from the Thames is arranged with a due
regard to symmetry. The small circular plaques of enamel, which are a
leading feature in the scheme of decoration, are placed in definite
positions, in groups of four and eight, around a central plaque
within a raised boss. The plaques are connected by =S=-shaped curves
in relief, which vary in width and in height above the background
in different places. The highest part of the curve is emphasised by
a sharp ridge which does not traverse the whole length of the curve
midway between the margins, but at one place approaches near one edge,
and a little further on approaches the other. An extremely complicated
solid, bounded by curved surfaces, is thus formed, the appearance of
which can only be realised by seeing the thing itself or a model of it.
[Illustration: Fibula of Bronze-Gilt from Æsica
Now in the Newcastle Museum. Scale 1/1 linear]
[Illustration: DETAIL OF ORNAMENT ON LATE-CELTIC BRONZE SHIELD FROM THE
THAMES AT BATTERSEA; NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM]
[Illustration: Flamboyant Ornament on Collar from Broighter, Limavady,
Co. Londonderry]
The circular bronze discs and the gold collar from Ireland exhibit a
class of flamboyant work which is somewhat different from that on the
shield from the Thames, and is still further removed from the original
foliage motive designs. Here conchoids take the place of the circular
enamelled plaques arranged in symmetrical positions, and the curves
connecting them with each other have the trumpet-shaped terminal
expansions, which are so characteristic of the Late-Celtic style, very
highly developed. A further modification that disguises the foliageous
origin of the design is the substitution of two =C=-shaped curves
meeting at an angle for the more gracefully flowing =S=-shaped curves.
Examples of a running pattern composed of =C=-shaped curves meeting at
an angle in the way described, occur on a bronze collar from Lochar
Moss,[321] Dumfriesshire, now in the British Museum (see p. 112). A
running pattern composed of =C= and =S=-shaped curves alternately
meeting at an angle occurs on the enamelled mounting of a bronze bowl
from Barlaston,[322] Staffordshire. We have pointed out the changes due
to copying in relief a design engraved on a flat surface; but curiously
enough when the decoration of the repoussé metalwork was again
transferred to a flat surface, as in the enamelled fittings of the
bronze bowls and in the spiral ornamentation of the illuminated MSS.
of the Christian period, it did not return to what it was before, but
became still more unlike its foliageous prototype. It will be noticed
that the ends of the trumpet-shaped expansions on the bronze discs and
gold collar being in the highest relief catch the light. In the MSS.
and enamels this effect is imitated by small almond-shaped spots of a
different colour from the rest. The beautiful repoussé ornament on the
bronze mirror from Balmaclellan,[323] Kirkcudbrightshire, now in the
Edinburgh Museum of Antiquities, supplies us with another instance of
little raised bosses which were afterwards reproduced on the flat by
means of colour in the Christian MSS.
[321] _Archæologia_, vol. xxxiii., p. 347.
[322] _Ibid._, vol. lvi., p. 44.
[323] Dr. J. Anderson’s _Scotland in Pagan Times: Iron Age_, p. 127.
[Illustration: Spiral Ornament in Illuminated MS. copied from repoussé
metalwork]
[Illustration: CIRCULAR DISC OF BRONZE WITH REPOUSSÉ ORNAMENT FROM
IRELAND; NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM]
[Illustration: BRONZE ENAMELLED HARNESS-RING FROM WESTHALL, SUFFOLK;
NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
SCALE ¾ LINEAR]
Many of the curvilinear Late-Celtic patterns which are used to fill
a circular space are based upon the triskele and the swastika. A
good example of a curved swastika pattern occurs on each of the
three enamelled handles of a bronze bowl found at Barlaston,[324]
Staffordshire. Triskele designs are much more common, especially
on the round disc fibulæ, specimens of which have been found at
Silchester,[325] Hampshire; Brough,[326] Westmoreland; and in the
Victoria Cave,[327] near Settle, Yorkshire. There are other instances
on the bronze tankards from Elveden,[328] Essex, and Trawsfynydd,[329]
Merionethshire; on the bronze shield from the Thames,[330] now in
the British Museum; on a bronze disc-and-hook ornament in the Dublin
Museum;[331] on a bronze plate in the Welshpool Museum;[332] on some
bronze harness-mountings (?)8 from South Shields;[333] on bronze
wheel-shaped pendants from Seamill Fort,[334] Ayrshire, from Berkshire,
now in the British Museum, from Kingsholm,[335] near Gloucester, and
from Treceiri, Carnarvonshire. These designs may have had a symbolical
origin, as the triskele was a well-known sun symbol in the Bronze
Age. The triskele arrangement of three spirals round a central spiral
survived in the decoration of the illuminated MSS. of the Christian
period.
[324] _Archæologia_, vol. lvi., p. 44.
[325] Now at Strathfieldsaye House.
[326] _Proc. Soc. Ant. Lond._, ser. I, vol. iv., p. 129.
[327] _Historic Soc. of Lanc. and Cheshire, Trans._ for 1866, p. 199.
[328] _Archæologia_, vol. lii., p. 359.
[329] _Archæologia Cambrensis_, ser. 5, vol. xiii., p. 212.
[330] Kemble’s _Horæ Ferales_, pl. 15.
[331] _The Reliquary_ for 1901, p. 56.
[332] Unpublished.
[333] _Jour. Brit. Archæol. Assoc._, vol. xxxix., p. 90.
[334] R. Munro’s _Prehistoric Scotland_, p. 378.
[335] Douglas’ _Nenia Britannica_, p. 134.
In the repoussé metalwork of the Late-Celtic period certain portions
of the design are thrown into relief in order to enable them to be
distinguished from the rest which is not in relief. Much the same
artistic effect can be obtained when the design is engraved on a flat
surface by means of shading, and in the case of enamelled plaques, by
employing different colours. In fact, by the use of relief, shading, or
colour, the decorative effect of a pattern is doubled, because there
are two things for the mind to comprehend, namely, the shape of the
pattern itself and the shape of the background. Anyone who endeavours
to realise both shapes simultaneously will find it an impossibility.
Several different kinds of shading are used in Late-Celtic art, chiefly
in ornament engraved on metal, wood, bone, and pottery, as will be seen
by the following list:—
_List showing different kinds of shading used in Late-Celtic
Art, and the objects on which they occur._
(1) Shading of parallel lines.
[Illustration]
On spoon-like bronze objects from Crosby Ravensworth, Westmoreland, and
Ireland.
On bronze mirror from Stamford Hill, near Plymouth.
On engraved pottery from Glastonbury Marsh Village.
On bronze sword-sheath from Embleton.
(2) Cross-hatching placed diagonally.
[Illustration]
On engraved piece of wood and engraved pottery from the Glastonbury
Marsh Village.
(3) Cross-hatching placed diagonally, with dots in each of the square
meshes.
[Illustration]
On engraved wooden tub from the Glastonbury Marsh Village.
(4) Cross-hatching of double lines placed diagonally.
[Illustration]
On engraved piece of wood from the Glastonbury Marsh Village.
(5) Chequerwork grass-matting shading.
[Illustration]
On bronze sword-sheath from crannog at Lisnacroghera.
On bronze mirrors from Trelan Bahow, Cornwall; Birdlip,
Gloucestershire; from unknown locality, now in the Liverpool Museum;
and from Stamford Hill, near Plymouth.
(6) Engine-turned shading.
[Illustration]
On gold collar from Limavady.
(7) Dotted shading.
[Illustration]
On bronze spoon-like objects in the Dublin Museum.
On bronze harness-ring from Polden Hill, Somersetshire.
On silver armlet from Stony Middleton, Bucks.
Besides the Late-Celtic objects just described, which exhibit
curvilinear surface decoration derived from foliage, there are others
with very peculiar forms “in the round.” Amongst these are the
harness-rings with projecting knobs from Polden Hill, Somersetshire;
Stanwick, Yorkshire, and elsewhere; the beaded torques from Lochar
Moss, Dumfriesshire; Hynford, Lanark; and the beaded bracelets from
Arras and Cowlam, Yorkshire.
The projections on the harness-rings generally occur at three points
round the circumference, and their shapes will be better understood
from the illustrations than from any written description. It is not
easy to say what the meaning or origin of these projections can be, as
they bear no obvious resemblance to any natural or artificial object.
The beaded torques mentioned are composed of separate metal beads
(usually of two different shapes) strung on a square iron rod, so that
they cannot rotate or rattle about. The bracelets are, however, cast
in one piece, and made in imitation of a string of beads. This style
of bracelet is of foreign origin, as specimens have been found in
France[336] and Germany,[337] many of which are elaborately ornamented
with spiralwork in high relief.
[336] _Dictionnaire Archéologique de la Gaule._
[337] Lindenschmit’s _Alterthümer_.
[Illustration: Swastika design on Shield from the Thames]
Rectilinear patterns are of comparatively rare occurrence in
Late-Celtic art, as the designers of the period appear to have had a
rooted objection to using straight lines if they could possibly be
avoided. There are, however, a few exceptions. The small circular
enamelled plaques with which the bronze shield from the Thames, now
in the British Museum, is decorated, have a swastika pattern on each.
The swastika was probably a foreign importation, as it is used in
the decoration of the Gaulish bronze helmet from Gorge-Meillet[338]
(Marne), and of the iron lance-head from La Tène,[339] Switzerland.
The step-pattern in Late-Celtic art may have had a textile origin,
_i.e_. have been copied from a woven belt or other fabric. Instances of
it occur on a piece of engraved wood from the Glastonbury[340] Marsh
Village; on the bronze mountings of a shield from Grimthorpe,[341]
Yorkshire, now in the British Museum; on the bronze ferrule of a
spear-shaft from the Crannog at Lisnacroghera,[342] Co. Antrim; and on
a sculptured monolith at Turoe, Co. Galway. The step-pattern survived
after the Pagan period in the Christian enamels, as in the bowl from
Möklebust,[343] Norway, and the fragment at St. Columba’s College,[344]
Dublin. The key-pattern, or Greek fret, is unknown in Late-Celtic art.
The chequerwork pattern may also have had a textile origin. There
is an example of it on the bronze sword-sheath from Embleton,[345]
Cumberland, now in the British Museum.
The chevron and lozenge patterns are possibly survivals from the
preceding Bronze Age. We have instances of the chevron pattern on the
bronze mirror from Trelan Bahow,[346] Cornwall, and on a potsherd from
the Glastonbury[347] Marsh Village; and of the lozenge on the stave of
a bucket[348] from the same site.
[338] A. Bertrand’s _Archéologie Celtique et Gauloise_, p. 367.
[339] E. Vouga’s _Les Helvètes à La Tène_, pl. 5.
[340] _The Antiquary_ for 1895, p. 110.
[341] Ll. Jewitt’s _Grave-Mounds and their Contents_, p. 246.
[342] _Jour. R. Hist. and Archæol. Assoc. of Ireland_, ser. 4, vol.
vi., p. 394.
[343] _Mém. de la Soc. Ant. du Nord_, 1890, p. 35.
[344] J. B. Waring’s _Manchester Fine Art Treasures Exhibition_.
[345] Kemble’s _Horæ Ferales_, pl. 18, fig. 3.
[346] _Archæol. Jour._, vol. xxx., p. 267.
[347] _Proc. Somersetsh. Archæol. Soc._, vol. xl.
[348] _The Antiquary_ for 1895, p. 110.
[Illustration: Engraved Step Ornament on piece of wood found at the
Glastonbury Lake Village
Drawn by Arthur Bulleid, F.S.A.]