Hunterston Brooch

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Hunterston Brooch front view
The brooch is cast in silver, mounted with gold, silver and amber decoration. c. 700 AD
Rear view
Detail of pin-head

The Hunterston Brooch is a highly important

Christ, surrounded by tiny bird heads. The pin, which is broken, can travel freely around the ring as far as the terminals, which was necessary for fastening; it is now 13.1 cm long, but was probably originally 15 cm or more.[4]

The back of the brooch has a scratched inscription in

Norse-Gael contexts. The Hunterston Brooch is clearly an object of very high status, indicating the power and great prestige of its owner. With the Tara Brooch in Dublin and the Londesborough Brooch in the British Museum, it is considered one of the finest of over 50 highly elaborate surviving Irish Celtic brooches,[7] and "arguably the earliest of the ornate penannular brooches from Britain and Ireland".[8]

Possible origin

The Hunterston brooch may have been made at a royal site, such as

Dalriada, and the Museum of Scotland say "The style of the brooch has Irish parallels, while the filigree resembles metalwork from England. The brooch was probably made in western Scotland where the two traditions were joined, or perhaps in Ireland by a craftsman trained in foreign techniques."[10]

Construction

The brooch has a complex construction typical of the most elaborate Irish brooches. Panels of filigree work were created separately on gold trays, which were then fitted into the main silver-gilt body. On the reverse four panels of silver-gilt were also inserted; as in other examples like the

La Tène style Insular Celtic decoration, though on the Hunterston Brooch such motifs also appear on the front.[4] The brooch was worn by rulers or gifted from the ruler to people of importance. The Hunterston brooch showed power and wealth in the Viking Age
.

Notes

  1. ^ Lamb, page 92
  2. ^ Youngs, 92
  3. ^ a b c NMS
  4. ^ a b c Youngs, 91
  5. ^ Whitfield, Tara Brooch, 215; Youngs, 91-92, "an Irishman Melbrigda"
  6. ^ Moss (2014), p. 414
  7. ^ Youngs, 90
  8. ^ Laings, 148
  9. ^ Youngs, 57
  10. ^ Laings, 148; NMS database

References

  • Henderson, George; Henderson, Isabel. The Art of the Picts: Sculpture and Metalwork in Early Medieval Scotland. Thames and Hudson, 2004.
    ISBN 978-0-5002-8963-1
  • Lamb, Rev. John, BD. Annals of an Ayrshire Parish - West Kilbride. Glasgow: John J. Rae, 1896
  • "Laings", Lloyd Laing and Jennifer Laing. Art of the Celts: From 700 BC to the Celtic Revival, 1992, Thames & Hudson (World of Art),
    ISBN 0-500-20256-7
  • ISBN 978-0-3001-7919-4
  • "NMS"; Hunterston Brooch
    National Museums of Scotland
  • Whitfield, Niamh. The "Tara" Brooch:an Irish emblem of status in its European context, in Hourihane, Colum (ed), From Ireland coming: Irish art from the early Christian to the late Gothic period and its European context. Princeton University Press, 2001.
    ISBN 0-691-08825-X
    , 9780691088259
  • Whitfield, Niamh. "The Filigree of the Hunterston and 'Tara' Brooches". In: The Age of Migrating Ideas. Early Medieval Art in Northern Britain and Ireland. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Insular Art, 1993
  • Youngs, Susan (ed). "The Work of Angels", Masterpieces of Celtic Metalwork, 6th-9th centuries AD. London: British Museum Press, 1989.
    ISBN 0-7141-0554-6

External links

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