126 JANUARY 2016 http://www.stampandcoin.co.ukB
y bringing together several
collections from across
Europe, the curators of
this exhibition have given
visitors an eclectic and
fascinating insight into Celtic history
and culture, both real and imagined.
From the first written mention of the
Celts in 450 AD, to an exploration
of what it means to be Celtic today,
the objects in this exhibition tell the
complex and continuing story of not
one Celtic people, but many.
Standout features include the
Waterloo Helmet and Battersea
Shield, the spectacular Gundestrup
Cauldron and the Great Snettisham
Torc which has the distinction of
being one of the most elaborate
golden objects made in the ancient
world. There are also examples of early
illuminated medieval manuscripts,
stones crosses and more disparate
items – a Liberty tea set and even a
football shirt – that help explore the
Europe-wide connections that made
Celtic art so unique.
Most of the Celtic objects that have
survived the passage of time are everyday
items, drinking cups, combs andRunning until 31 January, the British Museum’s Winter exhibition ‘Celts: Art & Identity’ is the
first major exhibition of Celtic art in the UK for over forty years, pooling finds from London, The
National Museums of Scotland, and across Europe. Paula Hammond went along to find out moreCeltic coins
Celtic coin engravers remained
wonderfully free of Classical rules
and restraint.
Popular motifs are swirls and whirls
reflecting, perhaps, their belief in
reincarnation. Nature too features
heavily, although it can be hard to
decipher images when the creatures
portrayed are both mythic and highly
stylised. In the fluid, expressionistic
style that the Celts loved, horses are
reduced to a series of vigorous lines
straddling a carriage wheel. It’s an
image that can be seen again and again
in the Celtic world, and engraved on
gold coins and coin dies. Nice examples
of both can be seen in the exhibition.
In fact, the die (believed to have been
based on the gold slaters of Philip of
Macedon) is a recent find which pushes
the date of the earliest coin production
in Britain back to 150 BC.
Ambiguity and hidden meaning, so
common in Celtic art, is a central feature
of Celtic coins. A gold piece found in
Moselle Valley France, c.150-50 BC,
for example includes a curious scene in
which a human-headed horse seems to
stand astride a winged man. Another
dating from 200-100 BC shows a face
in which a boar is hidden, like some
modern-day ‘what can you see’ puzzle.
Both are illustrated and discussed in the
extensive exhibition catalogue.Celts: Art and Identity is a spectacular
exhibition in which Celtic coins assume
their rightful place in the wider world
of Celtic art, history and culture.
A catalogue, is available from
the British Museum Press (ISBN:
0714128368), priced £25.jewellery, or swords, shields, and horse
brasses, found in burials or deposited
in sacred gross and rivers. However,
although Celtic coins are plentiful,
they are rarely viewed as art objects. At
least not outside numismatic circles. So
it’s refreshing to see that Celts: Art &
Identity readdresses that balance with
a nice selection of coins and treasure
hoards whose art is included as part of
the larger discussion.
Celtic artists rarely stayed inside their
own cultural bubble. As the exhibition
shows, they were continually influenced
by the people they encountered (and
vice versa). This is especially obvious in
their coinage.
Celtic coins are more likely to show
people and ‘realistic’ figures than other
Celtic art objects. They also sometimes
include writing, which is rare in Celtic
art. All of this undoubtedly reflects
the influence of the Greek and Roman
prototype coins that Celtic craftsmen
and women were imitating. Never-
the-less, even at their most restrained,The swirls that we see
on the Battersea Shield,
are often paralleled in the
designs on Late Iron Age
coins. Found in the River
Thames at Battersea
Bridge, London, England,
350-50 BCGold Iron Age Coin,
found in Ruscombe,
Berkshire, England,
50–20 BCejewellery, or swords, shields, and horseAll images © The Trustees
of the British MuseumCelts:
Art & Identity
p126 Celtic coins exhibition.indd 126 23/11/2015 14:51