Chats on Old Copper and Brass

by Fred. W. Burgess

London Relics.

London has been the site of an important camp, town, or city ever since man lived in the marshes and upon the banks of Old Father Thames, and among the finds in the neighbourhood have been relics of every period of British civilization; and as a natural consequence London possesses representative collections of the Bronze Age, as well as of later periods. Collectors have many opportunities of buying, as well as of inspecting prehistoric bronzes in museums and in less important private collections. Some of these antiquities are of good form and possess a beauty of their own. The vivid green, relieved with deeper shades, with which age has painted these ancient relics gives them a peculiar charm, and it would be vandalism indeed to attempt to "clean" the celts and knives which antiquaries handle with such veneration and care.

The Beauty of Ancient Art.

During the last few years more attention has been given to the beauty of the workmanship of the early objects of brass and copper relics of prehistoric peoples, especially of the people who inhabited this country in pre-Roman days. The London museums contain very representative examples. To many the Guildhall Museum is of special interest, in that every object there has been found within the confines of the City of London. There are implements of the chase and of war and peace. For instance, in the cases containing weapons which may have been used for defence against wild animals, as well as for aggressive campaigns, there are bronze celts, some socketed with loops, side by side with a very fine tool and two small lumps of copper, which were discovered near the celt. These latter represent the unfinished material ready for the crucible and for the alloy which was to turn them into a bronze of special hardness. In the same case there are leaf-shaped swords and daggers of rapier form. There are also spear-heads of slender shapes with sockets extending near to the point of the weapon; and spear shaft-sockets of bronze, some of which were found in Fetter Lane.

Of the late Celtic period there are examples of personal objects, and it may be noted that duplicates of similar antiquities to those deposited in the Museum are on sale in a great number of shops in London, and now and then quite important parcels of these interesting metallic mementoes of peoples unknown come under the hammer. Such trinkets include bronze fibulæ, some enamelled, others of plain metal. A very beautiful specimen terminating with a roughly formed snake's head was found on the Thames bank near Hammersmith, on the site of reputed pile dwellings, some little time ago. In the same locality a bronze bowl and a mount were found soon afterwards. From the river near Battersea came a bronze shield, specially interesting in that it was decorated with enamelled ornaments. Horse-bits with enamelled rosettes have also been found in London. Perhaps one of the most interesting relics of that early age was a British helmet of copper, also decorated with enamels, found near Waterloo Bridge. In the Guildhall Museum there is a brooch made with a bow and pin in one piece, and quite a number of other styles of bronze fibulæ. There are bronze hairpins, too, some of the heads being decorated. There are Celtic tweezers, armlets of bronze, and many rings.

To the inquisitive who like to inquire into the processes of making things and to their sources, the remains of ancient workshops represented by lumps of copper, strips of bronze, and objects partly formed, are of special interest. There are bows, showing another advance in civilization. There are spoons, too, of circular form, hammered into shape. It has been said that bowls and spoons are the earliest signs of domesticity and civilization. Our ancestors, who lived on the seashore, made use of large shells, which gave them the cue to the fashioning of a shallow dish, which eventually became a bowl. The wings of the valves of the oyster and the pecten may have given the suggestion of a handle to a primitive spoon. Ethnologists have said that the broken cocoanut in the South Seas was the bowl of the primitive tribes, and from it vessels in clay were moulded.

The Useful Bronzes, the Prototypes of Later Brasses.

The beautiful bronzes of the later part of the Bronze Age include objects showing the gradual development and progress of the race. Not only are the weapons those likely to be used in defence against attacks from wild animals rather than for aggressive purposes, and the domestic bronzes of more civilized forms, but there are in addition implements of husbandry. In Ireland some very pronounced sickles and reaping-hooks have been found. There are also musical instruments and sounding horns, among them curved trumpets of bronze.

Many interesting although isolated finds have been made, such as a curious bronze or brass bucket with corrugated flutes, which was found at Weybridge, in Surrey, experts placing it among the relics of the early Iron Age. From Faversham, in Kent, many bronze mirrors have been secured, some of them being very ornamental, the backs being engraved all over. In the North of England several interesting finds have been made, too. Some of especial value were discovered in Heathery Burn Cave, Co. Durham; they consisted of domestic utensils which were probably used at the extreme end of the Bronze Age.

Among frequent finds is the patera or drinking-bowl, which must, of course, be distinguished from the patine, which was a flat dish with a raised rim, used for serving up meat or fish. Indeed, it would appear that some of the peoples who dwelt in those far-off ages of which we have no written history were more advanced in civilization and in the arts and crafts than we usually realize. Modern research has revealed much that was hitherto unknown, and scientists, explorers, and antiquaries now hold the ancients in much greater respect than formerly—they no longer regard them as "savages," although they may class them with the "barbarians" of more modern Europe.