- Chapter Sixteen -
the design and to fill in parts of it with textured surfaces such as basketwork.
Another application was in shield plates: in the Tal-y-llyn hoard already referred to
this is combined with the shaping of sheet bronze and brass in repousse. Repousse
and chasing imply that metal is moved rather than removed. Some of the best known
examples are in the shields (Stead 1985) but might also be seen, for example, in
scabbards such as that from Little Wittenham, Oxfordshire. The main panel of the
front plate has been textured with a ladder-like pattern of narrow, closely packed
repousse rungs (Raftery 1991) while the upper and lower ends have a panel of typical
curvilinear Celtic decoration, also in repousse, with added ornament in the form of
studs and appliques. The same styles of decoration might also be created by casting
them directly. This is particularly associated with Snettisham gold art but was
also repeated in bronze. Inserted into both sheet and cast bronze might be inlays
of other materials. This might be anything from coral to tin to glass. The use of
coloured opaque glasses is especially favoured in later iron age art in Britain, with
some spectacular effects (Haseloff 1991; Brun and Pernot 1992). The use of bronze
as a cladding has already been described, but bronze or brass might also be used
as a fretwork against a contrasting backing, which might be tinned copper in the Tal-
y-llyn hoard or, perhaps, patinated bronze in the Lochar Moss collar (MacGregor
1976 ).
Plating techniques could also be used to effect, either covering an object
completely or just forming part of the design. Study of the corroded remains of a
sword scabbard from a warrior grave at Kelvedon, Essex, England, datable to
C.IO Be, showed that an otherwise plain faceplate was decorated with a longitudinal
strip of tin plating thick enough to stand proud of the surface. When newly made
and polished, the tinning would show as a silver strip against the golden background
of a medium tin bronze; the strip itself has accurately straight and parallel edges. It
was created by masking the outer parts of the faceplate with clay, heating the bronze
sheet, fluxing the exposed strip with resin, and then rubbing the hot bronze with a
stick of tin. Above the melting point of tin (2J2°C) reaction between the bronze and
tin is instant, a series of compounds of copper and tin being produced, with excess
tin remaining on the outside. The plate was then heated to a higher temperature
approaching 600°C; the bronze-tin reactions continued, although in this case they
did not go to completion. Some unreacted tin remained on the surface but this is now
corroded away, exposing the underlying compound layers (Northover and Salter
1990; Jones 1992).
This is one example of the way in which Celtic craftsmen used metallurgical and
chemical techniques to decorate, conceal, texture or patinate bronze surfaces.
The decorative use of tin plating goes back to the Early Bronze Age (Meeks 1986)
but its appearance is intermittent. Within the period we are reviewing here one of its
earliest uses is on some brooches of the sixth-fifth centuries Be; excellent examples
come from the Diirrnberg in Austria (Moosleitner 1991). It then disappears from the
Celtic west for a long period but the technique was not forgotten elsewhere. It can
be seen on south Italian bronze armour of the fifth century, for example (Born et at.
1990). As far as is known at present, tinning in the form of plating reappeared in
Britain in the second half of the first century Be but tin had been used for inlays early
in the La Tene period. A La Tene I brooch from Flag Fen (Jones 1992) has its bow