Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron AgeAnderson, Joseph
History
Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron Age
Anderson, Joseph
Scotland -- Antiquities
A bridle-bit (Fig. 101), found in a moss at Birrenswark, in Annandale,
before 1785, and now in the National Museum, exhibits the
characteristics of this peculiar phase of art in a very striking manner.
It is no less peculiar in its design and construction than in the
character of its ornamentation. It is a single casting of bronze. The
loops of the cheek-rings have been cast within the loops of the
centre-piece, an operation implying technical skill and experience of
complicated processes of moulding and casting. The design, however, is
the most remarkable feature of the object. It is designed as carefully
as if it were a piece of jewellery. The rings, though cast in one piece
with the loops, are penannular in form, grasping the neck of the loop
between their expanded ends. The two rings differ slightly in size, and
the loops differ greatly in form. The one is treated as a loop formed of
a cylindrical rod bent to the shape of a loop, and carrying the
ornamented open-work of its terminal part as between its extended ends.
The other loop is treated as a solid form, and in its ornamental
termination there is no open work. The two rings are similar, but not
identical. The idea of openness suggested by the modelling of the one
loop is carried into the construction of the terminal portions as open
work, and the idea of solidity is similarly carried out in the other
loop. The surface decoration of the terminal portions of the loops is of
the same character in the parts of both that are similar, and is partly
carried also into the parts of the one which are wanting in the other.
It consists of red and yellow enamel _champléve_, the colours
alternating in alternate rows of triangular and oval spaces. A double
spiral and trumpet pattern appears in the open work of the one loop. The
loops and rings are greatly the worse for wear, and have been
strengthened by thin pieces riveted on.
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