Among the objects found at Exning, Suffolk,[1546] are some “curious bullæ” with clay cores, but they appear to belong to a later date.
As will be seen from the list of personal ornaments described in the preceding pages, their forms are but few and their number small in the British Islands, as compared with those of analogous objects found in some continental countries, as, for instance, Scandinavia and Switzerland. The absence of several forms of torques has already been mentioned; the Danish and North German lunette, or diadem-like bandlets, are also never found in this country, though, perhaps, the crescent-shaped gold plates or “minds” of the Irish antiquaries may represent the same class of ornaments. Spirals formed by coiling long tapering pieces of wire, such as are common in Scandinavia and throughout Germany, are also unknown, and this circumstance affords an argument against there having been any direct intercourse in very early days between this country and Etruria, where such spiral ornaments abounded. Besides this absence of spirals formed of solid metal, the engraved spiral ornament which in some countries is characteristic of the Bronze Period may be said to be absolutely unknown in Britain. The nearest approach to it is the ring ornament formed of concentric circles.
The bracelets formed of cylindrical coils of wire are also unknown, as well as those of hollowed bronze with discoidal ends, such as are so common in the Swiss Lake-habitations. Decorated pendants, like those which are found in Switzerland and the South of France, are also wanting. Altogether the bronze ornaments of Britain are neither abundant nor, as a rule, highly artistic; and it would appear that here, at all events, the serviceable qualities of bronze were more highly appreciated than its decorative lustre.
CHAPTER XIX.
CLASPS, BUTTONS, BUCKLES, AND MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS.
There still remain to be noticed a number of objects in bronze, of some of which the precise nature and use are now hardly susceptible of being determined; and of others but so few examples are known that they are best placed in a chapter which, like the present, is intended to treat of miscellaneous articles. It has occasionally been observed of antiquaries that when at a loss to explain the use or destination of some object of bronze or brass, their usual refuge is in the suggestion that it formed some portion of harness, or was what is termed a horse-trapping. To judge from what may be seen on the dray-horses and waggon-horses of the present day, future antiquaries, in examining the relics of the nineteenth century, will have some justification in assigning a vast number of forms of ornamental pendants and tongueless buckles to this comprehensive class of trappings; while a number of curious instruments of brass and other alloys, some of them not unlike complicated dentists’ instruments, will probably be given up in despair, though now in most cases susceptible of being recognised by the adept as destined to extract cartridges or their cases from breech-loading guns. If these puzzles await future antiquaries, those of the present day must be pardoned for occasionally being at fault as to the destination of some ancient instrument or ornament, and they may even be forgiven for making suggestions as to probable uses of such objects, provided they do not insist upon possibilities being regarded as strong probabilities, much less as facts.
In Fig. 493 is shown full-size a mysterious object, consisting of a tube with a slight collar at each end, having on one side a long narrow loop of solid metal subquadrangular in section, and on the other an elongated oval opening, a part of the side of which has been broken away. It was found with a number of socketed celts, knives, and other articles in the hoard at Reach Fen, Cambridge, already often mentioned. With it was also another smaller object of the same kind, shown in Fig. 494. This, however, has the orifice in the front, and not at the side opposite the loop, the section of which in this case is circular. One end of the tube is plugged up with a bronze rivet. The mouth of the oval opening is rough, and has no lip to it, as in the other case; and within the tube there are remains of wood. I have a broken specimen found at Malton, near Cambridge, of the same character as Fig. 493, but with the loop round in section, and both shorter and stouter. The end of the tube is cast with a flat plate closing the aperture, except for a central hole about ⅛ inch in diameter. I have another specimen much like Fig. 493, but the loop is longer and flatter, and beneath it the tube has a long oval opening with a lip around it, as well as a somewhat shorter opening on the opposite side of the tube. The loop also has a deep groove on its inner side extending its whole length. I am not sure where this object was found, but there is little doubt of its being English.
