In Fig. 111 is shown a larger celt in my own collection, found in the neighbourhood of Dorchester, Oxon. The wing ornament no longer consists of a solid plate, but the outlines of the wings of the palstave are shown by two bold projecting beads which extend over the sides of the celt as well as the faces. The socket is circular at the mouth, but the neck of the instrument below the moulding is subquadrate in section. In the socket are two small projecting longitudinal ribs, probably intended to aid in steadying the haft. Such projections are not very uncommon, and are sometimes more than two in number.
A celt ornamented in a similar manner, but with two raised bands near the mouth, was found with several other socketed celts and some palstaves with the wings bent over at Cumberlow,[395] near Baldock, Herts. Some of these are in the British Museum.
Another with two small pellets between the curved lines was found in a hoard at Beddington,[396] Surrey.
— Fig. 112.—Wilts. ½. — Fig. 113.—Harty. ½.
Fig. 112 represents another celt of much the same character, but with a bolder moulding at top, and a slight projecting bead all round the instrument just below the two curved lines representing the palstave wings, which on these celts have just the appearance of heraldic “flanches.” On the face not shown there is a triangular projection at the top like a “pile in chief” between the flanches. Inside the socket there are two longitudinal projections as in the last. The original of this figure, which has been broken and repaired with the edge of another celt, is in the Blackmore Museum at Salisbury, and was probably found in Wilts.
In the British Museum is an example of this type (4 inches) which has on one face only a pellet in the upper part of the compartment between the two “flanches.” It was found at Hounslow.
Another (4 inches) from the Heathery Burn Cave, Durham, is now in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S. I have one with the pattern less distinct from a hoard found in the Barking Marshes, Essex, in 1862. A celt much of the same pattern, but without the transverse line below the flanches, was found on Plumpton Plain,[397] near Lowes.
The same type occurs in France. I have examples from a hoard found at Dreuil, near Amiens. The same ornament is often seen on Hungarian celts, though usually without the lower band.
In Fig. 113 is shown one of the celts from the hoard discovered in the Isle of Harty,[398] Kent, to which I shall have to make frequent reference. Besides eight more or less perfect unornamented socketed celts, various hammers, tools, and moulds, five celts of this type were found. Although so closely resembling each other that they were probably cast in the same mould, in fact in that which was found at the same time, there is a considerable difference observable among them, especially in the upper part above the loop. In the one shown in the figure there are three distinct beaded mouldings above the loop, and above these again is a plain, somewhat expanding tube. In one of the others, however, there are only the two lowest of the beaded mouldings, and the upper half-inch of the celt first mentioned is absolutely wanting. The three others show very little of the plain part above the upper moulding. As will subsequently be explained, the variation in length appears to be connected with the method of casting, and to have arisen from a greater part of the mould having been “stopped off” in one case than another.