Londinium, Architecture and the CraftsLethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
History
Londinium, Architecture and the Crafts
Lethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
England -- Antiquities, Roman; London (England) -- Antiquities, Roman; Romans -- England -- London
Much glass of finer quality was imported. There is in the Guildhall
Museum a fragment signed by a maker of Sidon, and fragments of several
small plaques in the British Museum having patterns wrought in the
substance are of a kind found in Egypt. At the Egyptian exhibition of
the Burlington Club, 1921, similar plaques were shown, some having
sprigs of flowers, and one a _single_ rose petal pattern in yellow,
white and red on the dark ground (cf. Fig. 145). The three pieces at the
British Museum are all different and all can be restored. Fig. 144 is
from Roach Smith. Fig. 145 is a rough indication of the pattern of
another, and the third is a variant of Fig. 144. These interesting and
beautiful little fragments are obscure from age; they might with great
advantage be partially repolished, laid out on restored drawings, and be
made much of. The recent rearrangement of the contents of the Roman Room
at the British Museum, and the admirable new _Guide_, have so greatly
increased the interest of the objects that I want still more. I also
wish that the London things in the collection could be shown together.
Roach Smith never intended his objects to be separated.
_Enamels_.—Conyers’ phrases about coloured glass “prepared for
jewel-like ornament,” and “the brass embossments with glass set instead
of jewels,” apparently refer to enamels and seem to imply that enamelled
objects were made at the London glass works.
[Illustration:
FIG. 146.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 147.
]
A large number of small enamelled objects, from little bowls to
brooches, have been found in Britain. The art of enamelling was known
here before the Roman age, but objects having several colours seem to be
“Roman,” although there are Celtic characteristics in the patterns, and
it is agreed that there was a native manufacture (_British Museum
Guide_, p. 95) of such enamels. The finest piece is a “casket” in the
form of a little vase with a handle. This handle has turned-up ends of a
kind frequently found in Alexandrian silverwork. One of the bands of
enamel is a meandering stem and vine leaves. This beautiful object was
found in Essex, and there is in the British Museum another little
enamelled bowl also found not far from London, at Braughing,
Hertfordshire. The details in these two pieces are very similar, so are
those of a little enamelled cock found near the Royal Exchange. Notice
the use of long triangular forms and narrow saw-edged fillets. It seems
probable that all were made in London, and further evidence is found in
a remarkable enamelled plate taken out of the Thames (Fig. 146). This
“being an unfinished piece, was probably made in this country”—and city,
I would add. In colouring and technique this plate (probably part of a
memorial) is very like the objects already mentioned. A leaf form on it
which ends in a tendril is found also on the Braughing bowl; both these
pieces might have come from one shop. The type of ornament is remarkably
Celtic.
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