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
In the _Guide_ it is said that “debased Amazon shields can be
recognised, and Riegel has pointed out that the panel is not a unit, but
belongs to a larger all-over pattern which could be repeated
indefinitely, and reveals an artistic tendency of the later Roman
Empire.” I do not agree with either of these statements. The pattern
seems to me to have been designed as a reversed scroll pattern,
subdivided by setting down oval forms in the spaces to counterchange the
colour in a typically Celtic manner. In the diagram (Fig. 147), A is the
pattern type; B is the application to the space; C is the subdivision of
the spaces completing the design. In D and E, I have made an original
design on the same principle. Other details in the filling of the space
at the top are Celtic. Notice again a heart-shaped form at X. This form
is frequent in small seal-boxes, several of which have been found in
London, of which F is from one lately added to the Guildhall collection.
It is probable, I think, that such enamels were made in London by Celtic
artists. An enamelled harness plate found in London and illustrated by
Roach Smith is like others found in Somersetshire (see G). A small
brooch in the form of a fish at the London Museum may be early
Christian.
_Leadwork._—Britain was the chief source for lead in the later Roman
era. Of about a hundred and twenty Roman pigs of lead in the museums of
Europe, about half were of British origin, as appears from the
inscriptions. Cast sheet lead was used for coverings. Some actually in
position was found lining the bottom of the hot bath at Bath in 1864. It
was afterwards sold for £70! Mr. Irvine, in an article on the Corinthian
temple at Bath, assumes that the roof was covered with lead. He says
that the sheet lead found in Bath was about three-eighths of an inch
thick and showed that it was cast on a sand-bed. Melted lead was found
at St. Albans under conditions which suggested that it had come from the
roof of the Basilica. We may be satisfied that lead was used for
important roofs. Lead pipes are also found.
Many lead coffins have been found in and about London—about a dozen in
all—and they were doubtless made in the city. The fashion of using lead
coffins seems to have originated in the Romanised East about the time of
the recognition of Christianity, and those found in London follow the
general type very closely. I give in Fig. 148 a rough sketch made in
Constantinople twenty-five years ago of a lead coffin found at Sidon.
Another coffin from Sidon has recently been acquired by the British
Museum. Figs. 149, 150 and 151 are from coffins found in London.
[Illustration:
FIG. 148.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 149.
]
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