Fig. 103.—Bronze Mirror found at Balmaclellan (8 inches in diameter) The body of the mirror is a thin plate of bronze, surrounded by a plain-rolled edging. The handle, which is also a thin plate of bronze similarly edged, is attached to the circular plate by rivets, and the junction is concealed by a finely-ornamented plate (Fig. 104), presenting a pattern composed of those peculiar raised surfaces formed by the meeting of curves rising from the flat at different angles, and traversing the ground also in curves, which converge and diverge in a manner pleasing to the eye, but difficult to describe. The upper part of this ornamental plate is tri-lobate, the lobes bounded by curves of peculiar form, and bordered by an edging of studs embossed on the metal.
Fig. 104.—Ornamental Plate of thin bronze, embossed, at the junction of the mirror with its handle (actual size). The central ornament of each lobe is a circular device, with a central boss surrounded by a circle of oval-raised surfaces, and presenting a nearer approach to the effect of a floral decoration than is usually seen in this style of ornament. The handle of the mirror is pierced with three segmental openings formed of the curves of the divergent spiral. A crescentic collar-shaped plate of bronze (Fig. [105]), 13 inches in diameter, and 2 inches in the width of the band, is decorated with a chased pattern of similarly convergent and divergent curves, the spaces enclosed by the curves being hatched with parallel lines.
Fig. 105.—Half of the Crescentic Collar-like Plate of Bronze found with the Mirror at Balmaclellan. The remaining plates (Fig. [106]), of which there are a considerable number, are of various forms. Some have straight outer edges, and the interior edges cut into curves, meeting each other with long and short points; others are triangular pieces, with one convex and two concave edges, while others again are long narrow bands with straight edges. They are all bordered with an edging of thin metal doubled over and pinned on, and they seem themselves to have been attached by pins to some object of a more perishable nature. What their precise purpose was—whether they were mountings on wood or leather, or whether they formed parts of some object constructed wholly of thin plates of metal (as the two objects previously described are constructed)—it is not necessary to conjecture since the form and condition of the objects themselves give no definite indications on these points. Their being wrapped in cloth in separate parcels may imply that they are not all parts of the same object, and their local association with objects of such incongruous purposes, as a mirror and a quern, may imply that they were not necessarily even associated with each other when in use. There is no evidence that the deposit was in any way connected with sepulture, although the mirror of this form, and bearing precisely the same kind of ornamentation, has been found associated with interments of Pagan time in Britain.
Fig. 104.—Ornamental Plate of thin bronze, embossed, at the junction of the mirror with its handle (actual size).
Fig. 105.—Half of the Crescentic Collar-like Plate of Bronze found with the Mirror at Balmaclellan.