The Londesborough Brooch is a Celtic pseudo-

penannular brooch The Celtic brooch, more properly called the penannular brooch, and its closely related type, the pseudo-penannular brooch, are types of brooch clothes fasteners, often rather large; penannular means formed as an incomplete ring. They are especial ...

from Ireland. Dating from the late eighth or early ninth century, it is a particularly elaborate example of a dress fastener dated to Ireland's artistic golden age, when objects such as the

Tara Brooch The Tara Brooch is an Irish Celtic brooch, dated to the late-7th or early-8th century, of the pseudo-penannular type (i.e., with a fully closed head or hoop). It is made from bronze, silver and gold, with a head formed from a circular ornate ri ...

and

Ardagh Chalice The Ardagh Hoard, best known for the Ardagh Chalice, is a hoard of metalwork from the 8th and 9th centuries. Found in 1868 by two young local boys, Jim Quin and Paddy Flanagan, it is now on display in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. I ...

were produced. Since 1888, it has been part of 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 ...

's collection.

Description

The brooch and pin were cast in

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

, though the metal is heavily debased, and tests show it contains about 65% copper, 34% silver, with traces of lead and gold.Youngs, 93 This might reflect an origin in melted-down late Roman coins. The pieces were thickly gilded on the front, and selectively on parts of the back of the head. The pin was cast in two pieces, head and shank, joined with a

rivet A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite to the head is called the ''tail''. On installation, the rivet is placed in a punched ...

. Both head and pin were ornamented with geometric and

zoomorphic The word ''zoomorphism'' derives from the Greek ζωον (''zōon''), meaning "animal", and μορφη (''morphē''), meaning "shape" or "form". In the context of art, zoomorphism could describe art that imagines humans as non-human animals. It c ...

patterns and inset with

amber Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In ...

pieces, some now missing. On the back of the head there are two blue glass studs near where the large terminal joins the hoop. There are many small differences between the decoration of the right and left sides of the head, although the overall impression is one of symmetry. Many details of the decoration recall the earlier Tara Brooch and the Breadalbane Brooch (the latter also in the British Museum). However, unlike most other very elaborate brooches of the type, the Londesborough Brooch lacks any gold filigree decoration, and aspects of the decoration recall larger pieces of church metal work such as shrines.

Commission

The intricate decoration on precious metal and the large size of the brooch suggest it was made for a wealthy patron or religious leader in Ireland in the late eighth or early ninth centuries AD.Youngs, 93 The pseudo-penannular form is typical of Irish brooches at this period; in a true penannular brooch there is a gap in the centre of the wide terminals ending the hoop through which the pin can pass. In the pseudo-penannular type the terminal sides are joined, here by two narrow bands, making the brooch less efficient as a fastener.

Provenance

Little is known about the original circumstances of the brooch's discovery before it became part of Lord Londesborough's collection. The British Museum purchased the brooch in 1888. With the Tara Brooch in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, and the

Hunterston Brooch The Hunterston Brooch is a highly important Celtic brooch of "pseudo-penannular" type found near Hunterston, North Ayrshire, Scotland, in either, according to one account, 1826 by two men from West Kilbride, who were digging drains at the foo ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

, it is considered one of the finest of over 50 highly elaborate Irish Celtic brooches to survive.Youngs, 90

Notes

References

*Susan Youngs (ed), ''"The Work of Angels", Masterpieces of Celtic Metalwork, 6th–9th centuries AD'', catalogue #71, 1989, British Museum Press, London, (most of the entry is quoted on the BM page, chopped about)

Description

Commission

Provenance

Notes

References

Further reading