DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.56731#0020
4. CELTIC ANIMAL DESIGN, THE WITHAM SHIELD AND THE DESBOROUGH
MIRROR
1, a, b. Shield from the River Witham. Third century b.c. British Museum. Fig. a. Drawing
of the whole shield. Fig. I. Detail of one of the roundels terminating the embossed midrib.
Fig. b. Flat projection of the engraved decorations of the roundel.
Like the sword from Lisnacrogher (see 2, 4), this is the product of a North British school of
armourers of the third century b.c., whose work shows Hungarian influence. Contact with the
Continental tradition can be traced, especially in the engraved ornamentation, but the vigour of
the modelling is new and characteristically British, and the technique is superior to that of any
work of Continental Celtic art.
As seen in Fig. a, the shield-device, a boar, was once mounted on the shield, a flat bronze
sheet, of which the engraved outline alone remains. The boar, despite its match-like legs, its
atrophied belly, and other odd features, is far from being primitive. Apparently the high-ranking
officer or chieftain for whom the shield was made wished to see the armorial bearings of the family
in their ancestral shape: the armourer kept much of the old type—such boars appear on Celtic
coins in Gaul and Britain—but cleverly translated it into his own style; notice the pattern of
the feet.
2. Bronze head of a horse, from a chariot-grave at Stanwick, Yorks. 3! in. high. First century b.c.
British Museum.
The face is stylized into an ornamental pattern, here a lyre, the scrolls of its base being formed
by the horse’s nostrils. The slanting eyes give the horse a sad, uncanny expression. The head
may be compared with earlier, stylized human heads from the Continent (see 5).
5. Red sandstone head from Heidelberg. About 400 b.c. Museum, Karlsruhe.
Head of a more than life-size “ menhir’’-like statue, Janus-faced. The face on the other side,
not illustrated here, is less over-stylized. Both faces are framed by the -same two huge curving
leaves, the typical head-gear of Celtic gods or daemons. The head is an ornamental variation on
the theme “face”; there are eyes, but the rest is a construction of arcs which do not correspond
to parts of a human face.
4. Bronze mirror from Desborough, Northamptonshire. About the time of the birth of Christ.
British Museum.
The burnished reverse served as the mirror. This is the best of a series of mirrors which were
made within the last fifty years before and shortly after the Roman Conquest. Perhaps they
may all have been drawn from patterns which served other metal-workers as well. The engraved
design is a maze of burnished reflecting forms and spaces roughened with “basketry-work”, which
is a British innovation. The Celtic interplay between “foreground” and “background” should be
compared with the pattern of the gold cup from Schwarzenbach (see 2, 2); the symmetrical
arrangement shows the classical influence.
a
b
MIRROR
1, a, b. Shield from the River Witham. Third century b.c. British Museum. Fig. a. Drawing
of the whole shield. Fig. I. Detail of one of the roundels terminating the embossed midrib.
Fig. b. Flat projection of the engraved decorations of the roundel.
Like the sword from Lisnacrogher (see 2, 4), this is the product of a North British school of
armourers of the third century b.c., whose work shows Hungarian influence. Contact with the
Continental tradition can be traced, especially in the engraved ornamentation, but the vigour of
the modelling is new and characteristically British, and the technique is superior to that of any
work of Continental Celtic art.
As seen in Fig. a, the shield-device, a boar, was once mounted on the shield, a flat bronze
sheet, of which the engraved outline alone remains. The boar, despite its match-like legs, its
atrophied belly, and other odd features, is far from being primitive. Apparently the high-ranking
officer or chieftain for whom the shield was made wished to see the armorial bearings of the family
in their ancestral shape: the armourer kept much of the old type—such boars appear on Celtic
coins in Gaul and Britain—but cleverly translated it into his own style; notice the pattern of
the feet.
2. Bronze head of a horse, from a chariot-grave at Stanwick, Yorks. 3! in. high. First century b.c.
British Museum.
The face is stylized into an ornamental pattern, here a lyre, the scrolls of its base being formed
by the horse’s nostrils. The slanting eyes give the horse a sad, uncanny expression. The head
may be compared with earlier, stylized human heads from the Continent (see 5).
5. Red sandstone head from Heidelberg. About 400 b.c. Museum, Karlsruhe.
Head of a more than life-size “ menhir’’-like statue, Janus-faced. The face on the other side,
not illustrated here, is less over-stylized. Both faces are framed by the -same two huge curving
leaves, the typical head-gear of Celtic gods or daemons. The head is an ornamental variation on
the theme “face”; there are eyes, but the rest is a construction of arcs which do not correspond
to parts of a human face.
4. Bronze mirror from Desborough, Northamptonshire. About the time of the birth of Christ.
British Museum.
The burnished reverse served as the mirror. This is the best of a series of mirrors which were
made within the last fifty years before and shortly after the Roman Conquest. Perhaps they
may all have been drawn from patterns which served other metal-workers as well. The engraved
design is a maze of burnished reflecting forms and spaces roughened with “basketry-work”, which
is a British innovation. The Celtic interplay between “foreground” and “background” should be
compared with the pattern of the gold cup from Schwarzenbach (see 2, 2); the symmetrical
arrangement shows the classical influence.
a
b