The Breadalbane Brooch is a silver and gilt

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

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 ...

probably made in Ireland, but later altered and then found in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Probably dating to the 8th century, with 9th-century alterations, it is an intricately designed,

silver-gilt Silver-gilt or gilded/gilt silver, sometimes known in American English by the French term vermeil, is silver (either pure or sterling) which has been gilded with gold. Most large objects made in goldsmithing that appear to be gold are actually ...

dress fastener that is closely related to a select group of brooches that were produced in Ireland and Britain during the 'golden age' of late

Celtic art Celtic art is associated with the peoples known as Celts; those who spoke the Celtic languages in Europe from pre-history through to the modern period, as well as the art of ancient peoples whose language is uncertain, but have cultural and styli ...

. The brooch has been in 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 ...

since 1919, and is normally on display.

Description

The brooch and pin were cast in silver with exquisite

geometric Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ca ...

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 ...

interlace patterns and inset with three green-glass

cabochon A cabochon (; ) is a gemstone that has been shaped and polished, as opposed to faceted. The resulting form is usually a convex (rounded) obverse with a flat reverse. Cabochon was the default method of preparing gemstones before gemstone cuttin ...

gems (one of which is missing). Several moulded sections were used, although the main ring was cast in one piece, other goldsmith's techniques were used in the decoration. both front and back were partially

gilded Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...

, with gold and

gold foil Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...

also used in parts of the decoration. There may have been inset pieces of

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 Ma ...

, which are now missing. There is decoration on both front and back, in rather different styles, a feature also found in the This is one of a number of brooches which were made in the Irish "pseudo-penannular" style, with the ring fully closed (like the two just mentioned and the

Londesborough Brooch The Londesborough Brooch is a Celtic pseudo-penannular brooch 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 ...

), but later adapted to a true penannular brooch by cutting away the bridging section linking the large terminals.Youngs, 94-95 The pin, which moves freely around the ring between the terminals (see other picture), is broken but would have originally extended to at least double the brooch's diameter. It appears to be a replacement, made in Scotland, probably at the same time that the form of the ring was adapted, by cutting the bridge to make the brooch truly penannular.Youngs, 95

History of ownership

The design and manufacture of the brooch mixes Celtic and

Pictish Pictish is the extinct language, extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited num ...

styles - it may originally have been a gift from an Irish dignitary to his Scottish counterpart, who later repaired or embellished the brooch according to local tastes. The original

provenance Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...

of the brooch is unknown, although it is conjectured that the brooch was found in

Perthshire Perthshire (locally: ; gd, Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, ...

in Scotland as it was probably first owned by

Gavin Campbell, 1st Marquess of Breadalbane Gavin Campbell, 1st Marquess of Breadalbane (9 April 1851 – 19 October 1922), styled Lord Glenorchy between 1862 and 1871 and known as The Earl of Breadalbane and Holland between 1871 and 1885, was a Scottish nobleman and Liberal politician. ...

, whose country estate was located in that county. The brooch was later donated to the national collection by Sir John Ramsden, following the sale of the Breadalbane Collection in 1917.

Notes

References

* Henderson, George; Henderson, Isabel. ''The Art of the Picts: Sculpture and Metalwork in Early Medieval Scotland''. Thames and Hudson, 2004. *Susan Youngs (ed), ''"The Work of Angels", Masterpieces of Celtic Metalwork, 6th–9th centuries AD'', cat. # 72, 1989, British Museum Press, London, , the catalogue entry text quoted on the BM website (click "more" on linked page)

Description

History of ownership

Notes

References

Further reading