Fig. 109.—Bronze Spoon-like object (one of a pair) found at Weston, near Bath (actual size).
The same character is exhibited by the ornamentation of a series of spoon-like objects[[65]] found in England and Ireland, of which Fig. [109] is a characteristic example. Four of these are in the National Museum, and though no specimens have yet been met with in Scotland, I notice them here, because their decoration is so nearly related to that of the Scottish school. In the case of the pair of these peculiar objects found in excavating for a quarry at Weston, near Bath, the backs of the circular projections or handles (Fig. 110) are ornamented with patterns of this character in relief. The front of the disc is ornamented with a series of circular concentric mouldings, and the bowl of the spoon is quartered by incised lines. It is a peculiarity of these objects, that though found in pairs, the two members of the pair, though similar, are not identical. In some cases it is apparent that they have even been cast in different moulds. Usually one of the pair has its bowl quartered by incised lines, while the other has a small hole pierced near the edge of the bowl. Another pair, also in the Museum, were found in 1861 in a railway cutting in Llanfair parish, Denbighshire. They are slightly smaller in size, and differ in the ornamentation of the front of their discs. One of them (Fig. [111, No. 2]) is here shown along with the second of the Weston specimens.
Fig. 110.—Backs of the Handles of the pair of Spoon-like objects found at Weston, near Bath (actual size).
The same characteristic style of art is seen in the decoration of a massive collar of cast bronze (Fig. [112]), which was found in digging a well at Stitchell, in Roxburghshire, in 1747, and is now in the National Museum. Like the armlets found in the Plymouth graves, this collar is jointed, opening on a hinge in the centre, and fastening in front by a pin and socket. It is a very massive and heavy ornament, the width of the opening being 6 inches by 5, and the breadth of the flattened ring varying from 1¾ inch to ¼ inch. The character of the ornament is simple, but highly peculiar, and bearing a strong family likeness to the double escaping and divergent spirals of the later Celtic art. All the patterns are in relief and cast in the solid, except those on the two panels on either side of the central opening, which are in repoussé on a thin plate of bronze fastened to the collar by pins at the four corners.
Fig. 111.—Bronze Spoon-like objects found at Weston and Llanfair.
Fig. 112.—Jointed Collar of Bronze found at Stitchell, Roxburghshire.