CHAPTER V

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.]