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The Braganza Brooch is a gold ornamental British Museum Collection
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fibula
The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity i ...
that was made in the third century BC by a Greek craftsman for a Celtic Iberian client. Since its discovery in unknown circumstances in the nineteenth century in Portugal, it has belonged to a variety of owners, including various members of the House of Braganza, for which it is named, before being purchased by the British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
in 2001./ref>
Description
This heavy gold brooch is dominated by the figure of a naked warrior who wears a Celtic helmet and protects himself with a Celtic shield and sword from a hunting dog which jumps up to him. Each end of the fibula is decorated by a dog's head and it once furnished a spring and pin which is now lost. The form, style and technique suggest that it was made in the third century BC by a Greek jeweller for a Celtic patron who lived on theIberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
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* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
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* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...
. Contemporary Iberian brooches were usually made of silver and were often decorated with warriors on horseback accompanied by hunting dogs. In this unique gold version, the craftsman has simplified the hunting scene and added a boar's head, which once served as the sliding catch for the now missing pin. The brooch measures approximately 14 cm long.
Ownership
The brooch was once in the collection of the Royal House of Braganza and was perhaps collected by Fernando II, consort of Queen Maria of Portugal. Most of the jewellery of the Braganza dynasty was inherited in 1919 by HRH Nevada of Portugal, Princess d'Braganza and Duchesse d'Oporto who later emigrated to America. On her death in 1941, the collection was sold to Warren Piper of Chicago. The brooch was in turn purchased by Thomas F Flannery Jr in 1950. After being loaned to the British Museum for 7 years, it was purchased by the museum in 2001.See also
*Cordoba Treasure
The Cordoba Treasure, or ''Tesoro de Córdoba'' in Spanish, is the name of a major Iron Age silver hoard found on the outskirts of the city of Córdoba, Spain in 1915. The entire treasure was purchased by the British Museum in 1932, where it has ...
* Orense Torcs
Further reading
*M. Lenerz-de Wilde, 'The Celts in Spain' in The Celtic World (London and New York, Routledge, 1995) *I. Stead, Celtic Art, British Museum Press, 1996 *Megaw Ruth and Vincent, Celtic Art: From Its Beginnings to the Book of Kells, 2001References
{{Portuguese Crown Jewels Ancient Celtic metalwork Ancient Greek and Roman objects in the British Museum Individual brooches 3rd-century BC works Portuguese art Ancient Greek metalwork