Celtic brooch

They are especially associated with the beginning of the Early Medieval period in Ireland and Britain, although they are found in other times and places—for example, forming part of traditional female dress in areas in modern North Africa.

[1] The most elaborate examples were clearly significant expressions of status at the top of society, which were also worn by clergy, at least in Ireland,[2] though probably to fasten copes and other vestments rather than as everyday wear.

[11] "Celtic" is a term avoided by specialists in describing objects, and especially artistic styles, of the Early Middle Ages from the British Isles, but is firmly fixed in the popular mind.

However, there are elements in the style of Irish and Scottish brooches deriving from Anglo-Saxon art, and related to Insular work in other media, especially illuminated manuscripts.

[20] Often the extra thickness at the terminal, necessary to prevent the pin just falling off, is achieved simply by turning back the ends of the ring.

[21] In the late Roman period in Britain in the 3rd and 4th centuries, a type of penannular brooch with zoomorphic decoration to the terminals appeared, with human or animal heads, still not much wider than the rest of the ring.

They continued to be produced for about 200 years; the Pictish brooches are much more homogeneous in design than the Irish ones, which may indicate a shorter period of production, possibly from "the mid-eighth to the beginning of the ninth centuries".

There was no previous tradition of very ornate brooches in Ireland, and this development may have come from contact with Continental elites who wore large fibulae as marks of status.

[27] Archaeological, and some literary, evidence suggests that brooches in precious metal were a mark of royal status, along with wearing a purple cloak, and it is probably as such that they are worn by Christ on a high cross at Monasterboice and by the Virgin Mary on another.

Some are gilded base metal, of bronze or copper-alloy;[35] only one solid gold Irish brooch is known, a 9th-century one from Loughan, County Londonderry, which is less elaborate than most of the series, though the standard of work is very high.

[36] However, some brooches have a hidden recess which may have contained small lead weights to make the precious metal used seem more valuable than it actually was.

Filigree decoration was often made on "trays" which fitted into the main ring — on the Tara Brooch many of these are now missing (most were still in place when it was found in 1850).

By about the year 1000, the situation was relatively stable, with a mixed population of Norse-Gaels in the towns and areas close to them, while the Gaelic Irish, whose elite often formed political alliances, trading partnerships and inter-marriages with Viking leaders, remained in control of the great majority of the island, and were able to draw tribute from the Viking towns.

The 9th century Roscrea Brooch is one of a number of transitional brooches; though its form is highly ornate, with a large flat triangular pin head, the ring is thick plain silver, the gold filigree panels occupy relatively small areas, and their workmanship is a "coarse" or "crude" imitation of that of earlier works.

[49] The Kilamery Brooch is another ornate and high quality example, with a marked emphasis on plain flat silver surfaces.

[57] The penannular brooch fell from common use by the end of the 11th century, a time when Ireland and Scotland, and Scandinavia, were adopting general Western European styles in many areas of both art and life.

[61] The brooches we have today have been discovered since the 17th century, and their odds on their survival once found have increased greatly over that period, as their value as artefacts has overtaken their scrap value.

[62] Much of the responsibility for the fashion for high-quality Celtic Revival jewellery belongs to George Waterhouse, a jeweller from Sheffield, England, who moved to Dublin in 1842.

Before the end of the decade, he and the long-established Dublin firm West & Son of College Green (later moving to Grafton Street) were finding it necessary to register their designs to prevent copying.

The National Museum of Ireland is clearly not correct in saying that the fashion began after Queen Victoria was presented with a replica of the "Cavan Brooch" on her visit to Dublin to see the Great Industrial Exhibition in 1853;[64] the Royal Collection has two brooches that Prince Albert bought for her from West & Son in 1849 on an earlier visit to Dublin, which were already being made in editions.

[65] A later gift from Albert included a setting of a cairngorm he had picked up when walking in the Scottish Highlands, a more authentic type of gem than the brightly coloured foreign stones used in much Celtic Revival jewellery.

It was immediately recognised as the culminating masterpiece (though early in date) of the Irish development of large and superbly worked ornate brooches, a status it has retained ever since.

Waterhouse had invented the brooch's name; in fact, it has nothing to do with the Hill of Tara, and while likely found some 28 km away the actual circumstances of its find still remain unclear (essentially to avoid a claim by the landowner), and Waterhouse chose to link it to the site associated with the High Kings of Ireland, "fully aware that this would feed the Irish middle-class fantasy of being descended from them".

They were usually worn in symmetrical pairs and used to fix parts of unsewn draped garments, one to each side, with the pins pointing straight up.

Traditionally made by Jewish silversmiths, some are plain and large brooches, not unlike some later Celtic or Viking examples,[70] and other types have a very elaborately decorated triangular base to the pin, which can dwarf the ring.

[71] Local names for the brooches are said to include melia, melehfa, bzima, kitfiyya, and khellala in Maghrebi Arabic, and tabzimt, tizerzay, and tazersit in Berber languages.

The pseudo-penannular Tara Brooch , the most ornate of all, also decorated on the back (see below). Irish, early 8th century.
Viking period brooch in silver from the Penrith Hoard
The Rogart Brooch , National Museums of Scotland, FC2. Pictish penannular brooch, 8th century. Silver with gilding and glass. Classified as Fowler H3 type. [ 7 ]
Mock-up with modern fabric, showing how the brooches were used. [ 13 ]
Cashel Brooch, 9th or 10th century, from the Rock of Cashel .
Silver gilt "trumpet" brooch with Celtic spirals similar to those in the Book of Durrow . British, 1st or 2nd century, Trinity College Dublin
S-shaped enamelled brooch, 1st century, Trinity College Dublin. Celtic and Romano-British tradition
Tara Brooch , rear view.
The Kilmainham Brooch (Irish, late 8th- or early 9th–century) contains influence from Pictish art and metalwork. [ 33 ]
Detail of the Londesborough Brooch (late 8th- or early 9th–century)
The Breadalbane Brooch , Irish, 8th century, converted from its original pseudo-penannular form in 9th century Scotland. [ 42 ]
Viking period pennannular brooches from the Penrith Hoard , three of the " thistle " type.
The Roscrea Brooch , 9th century. National Museum of Ireland
Silver brooch in thistle pattern , 9th-10th century AD. The Hunt Museum ( Limerick , Ireland)
Brooches made in Scandinavia, mostly in base metal
Early medieval Irish brooch, bronze and glass. The pin lies entirely in front of the ring in this example.
Berber or Amazigh fibulae from southern Morocco