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._