I have shown elsewhere some of the innumerable forms under which the fires of Elmo, or the heavenly Twain, were represented. In England it is evident that a pair of horses served as one form of expression, for among the treasures at the British Museum is an article which is thus described: “Bronze plate representing an altar decorated with blue, green, and red sunk enamels, and evidently unfinished, hence native work of the fourth or fifth century. Found in the river Thames, 1847”. The principal decoration of this bijou altar—significantly 7 inches high—is two winged steeds supporting a demijohn, vase, or phial, the handles of which, in the form of
, are detached from the vase, but are emerging flame-like from the supporters’ heads. The fact of these steeds appearing upon an “altar” is evidence of their sacred character, and one finds apparently the same two beasts delineated on a bucket, vide Fig. 270. This so termed “barbaric production,” discovered in an Aylesford gravel pit belonging to a gentleman curiously named Wagon, is attributed to the first century B.C., and has been compared unfavourably with the Etruscan bucket reproduced on [page 474]. The authorities of the British Museum comment upon it as follows: “The effect of barbaric imitation during two or three centuries may be appreciated by comparing the Etruscan cista of the fourth century, with the Aylesford bucket of the first century B.C. The first thing to be noticed is the absence from the latter of the heavy solid castings that form the feet and handle-attachments of the classical specimen. Such work was beyond the range of the British artificer, who was never successful with the human or animal form, but there is an evident desire to reproduce the salient features of the prototype. The solid uppermost band of the Etruscan specimen is represented by a thin embossed strip at Aylesford, while the classical motives are woefully caricatured. Minor analogies are noticed later, but the degradation of the ornament may fitly be dwelt on here as showing the limitations, and at the same time the originality of the native craftsman.”
Fig. 269.—Bronze-mounted bucket, Aylesford. From A Guide to Antiquities of the Early Iron Age (B.M.).
Fig. 270.—Embossed frieze of bucket, Aylesford. From A Guide to Antiquities of the Early Iron Age (B.M.).
I confess myself unable either to appreciate or dwell upon the alleged degradation of this design, or the woeful inadequacy of the craftmanship. The bold execution of the spirals proves that the British artist—had such been his intent—could without difficulty have delineated a copybook horse: what, however, he was seemingly aiming at was a facsimile of the heraldic and symbolic beasts which our coins prove were the cherished insignia of the country, and these “deplorable abortions” I am persuaded were no more barbarous or unsuccessful than the grotesque lions and other fantastics which figure in the Royal Arms to-day.