THE VINTAGE THIMBLE

The Holcombe Mirror Uplyme, East Devon, England. Iron Age, about AD 30-70

An unexpected discovery In 1967 Devon Archaeological Society heard that a Roman mosaic pavement had been found by a farmer near Uplyme in East Devon. The Society started archaeological excavations at the site in 1969 and discovered a Roman villa. In 1970 a volunteer on the dig, Nicholas Riall, was excavating a pit found under the floor of one of the rooms in the villa. The pit belonged to a farm or settlement on the same spot the Villa was later built. In the bottom of the pit he found an Iron Age bronze mirror, which was placed there during the first century AD.

The mirror is made from bronze and is decorated with a symmetrical ‘Celtic’ or La Tene design. The decoration is on the back of the mirror, with the polished side where you saw your reflection on the other side. The complicated design is now difficult to see because it was badly corroded by being buried for 2000 years at the bottom of a pit. In fact, when the mirror was first found, no one could see any decoration on the mirror plate at all. It was only after it was carefully cleaned by conservators at the British Museum that the design could be made out.

The plate of the mirror is only 1 mm thick and binding strip around the edge helped to protect it. The grip that holds the handle to the mirror is decorated with two counterpoised trumpet scrolls. When you look at the mirror with the handle at the top, this grip looks like the face of a smiling cat. | The British Museum

The Great Torc from Snettisham Iron Age, about 75 BC. Found at Ken Hill, Snettisham, Norfolk, England. The most famous object from Iron Age Britain This torc was made with great skill and tremendous care in the first half of the first century BC. It is one of the most elaborate golden objects made in the ancient world. Not even Greek, Roman or Chinese gold workers living 2000 years ago made objects of this complexity. The torc is made from just over a kilogram of gold mixed with silver. It is made from sixty-four threads. Each thread was 1.9 mm wide. Eight threads were twisted together at a time to make 8 separate ropes of metal. These were then twisted around each other to make the final torc. The ends of the torc were cast in moulds. The hollow ends were then welded onto the ropes. The torc was found when the field at Ken Hill, Snettisham was ploughed in 1950. Other hoards were found in the same field in 1948 and 1990. The torc was buried tied together with a complete bracelet by another torc. A coin found in caught in the ropes of the Great Torc suggests the hoard was buried around 75 BC. | ↳ The British Museum

Nose Ornament with Spiders 1st century BCE – 2nd century CE. Peru. Salinar (?). Gold. Nose ornaments are among the earliest jewelry forms in Precolumbian America and were made in an endless variety of materials and styles; those for the elite were made of precious metal. In Peru, nose ornaments became less fashionable in the second half of the first millennium A.D. and were seldom used after about 600. This elegant, very delicate crescent nose ring from northern Peru is evidence of the high level of craftsmanship that existed among metalworkers at this time. Depicted are four spiders sitting in their web. The openwork, lacelike quality of the object was achieved by fusing the many minute parts together to create a symmetrical composition. The stylized spiders, their tiny eyes and fangs showing, are held, each in its own open space, by paired, spindly legs echoing the round bodies and joined to the web. Spider imagery occurs in Peruvian art from the middle of the first millennium B.C. onward, suggesting that spiders played a role in early Andean mythology. The spiders' ability to catch and kill live prey associates them with sacrifice. Information from the sixteenth-century Inka peoples links spiders with rainfall and fertility. | THE MET

Gold Necklace of Psusennes I ( Reign 1047 – 1001 BCE, 21st Dynasty ) Egyptian. heavy gold necklace of Psusennes I-Seven rings of golden threads join at a plaque, upon which can be seen a winged sun-discand the cartouches of the king. The goddess Mut sits to one side, while Amun sits to the other. Golden chains fall from the plaque, taking the form of lotus flowers. This necklace was originally found on the mummy of Psusennes I. | Egyptian National Museum, Cairo, Egypt, via The Bridgeman Art Library

Silver disc brooch of Ædwen Anglo-Scandinavian, first half of 11th century AD From Sutton, Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England Inscribed with a curse A hoard of objects, which included coins, gold rings and this brooch, was discovered during the ploughing of a field in 1694. The objects disappeared, but the brooch was rediscovered in a private collection in 1951 when it was bought by the British Museum. The brooch is made from a hammered sheet of silver. The engraved decoration is based around four overlapping circles forming flower-like motifs. At the centre of these flowers are conical raised bosses, one of which is now missing. Within the circles are different animals, some four-legged, others like snakes, surrounded by stylized plant ornament in an English version of the Ringerike style. There is an inscription in Old English around the edge on the back. Uniquely, it tells us who owned the brooch. The inscription may be translated as: 'Ædwen owns me, may the Lord own her. May the Lord curse him who takes me from her, unless she gives me of her own free will'. The back of the brooch is also decorated and has a fragment of silver strip attached, onto which the fixings for the missing pin were mounted. This strip is engraved with seven imitation Anglo-Saxon runes which cannot be read. The nature of the damage may indicate that the brooch was torn quickly and with some force from clothing and then buried, perhaps at a time of danger. The bold but simple decoration, the size of the brooch and the inscription suggest that its owner was a woman of some status. | The British Museum

Pair of royal finger rings Æthelwulf ring: Laverstock, Wiltshire, AD 828-58 Æthelswith ring: Aberford, West Yorkshire Each engraved with the name of an Anglo-Saxon ruler The two rings have similar inscriptions which identify them with the royal house of Wessex. As a result, they are often considered as a pair. However, they in fact come from different places, are of different date and are likely to have been made by different goldsmiths. The oldest and largest of the rings was found in 1780 in a cart-rut which probably accounts for its squashed appearance. It has an almost triangular bezel, which depicts a stylized plant motif between two birds. Below this main decoration is a rectangular panel carrying an inscription which can be read as 'Æthelwulf Rex' (King Æthelwulf). The hoop of the ring is wide and flat and is decorated with a quatrefoil and interlaced knot design. The second ring, ploughed up in 1870, has a circular bezel with a beaded frame and contains a cruciform (cross-shaped) design filled with leaf motifs. Within a central circle is a charming four-legged animal with a halo and the letters A and D which stand for 'Agnus Dei' (Lamb of God). This ring has the name of King Æthelwulf's daughter, 'Æthelswith Regina' (Queen Æthelswith), scratched into the back of the bezel. The hoop is plain and terminates in flattened shoulders decorated with further animals. The ornament on both rings is inlaid with niello to make it stand out. Although both show signs of wear, it is unlikely that they were worn by the King and Queen, but were probably royal gifts or symbols of office. | THE BRITISH MUSEUM

Silver bracelet, late 11th or 12th century AD From a hoard found in Trekhsvyatytelska Street, Kiev, Ukraine This silver bracelet of hammered sheet is hinged on one side and secured by a removable pin on the other. It is decorated with the heraldic figures of birds and tree-like flowers in arcades of beaded wire and is inlaid with black niello. The flowers are thought to represent the eternal cycle of nature. The birds, a popular motif in early Slav art, are thought to be symbols of the ruling dynasty in Kiev. The bracelet was probably made in a workshop attached to the court and associated with celebrations of the princely family. The manufacture of such objects later spread to other cities in the state of Rus'. The bracelet was found in 1906, as part of a hoard that contained other fine jewellery and two silver ingots. It was buried in a metal casket in Trekhsvyatytelska Street (Street of the Three Saints), opposite the gates of the Mikhailovsky Golden Dome Monastery in Kiev. Gold jewellery from the same hoard is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The hoard was probably buried at the time of the Tartar invasions and sack of Kiev around 1240. | THE BRITISH MUSEUM

Almond-Shaped Pendant, 400-600 Byzantine, early Byzantine period, 5th-7th Century gold, lapis lazuli, garnet, and glass. | CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART.

Button, Byzantium, early Byzantine period, 6th century rock crystal with a garnet mounted in a gold granulated star. | ↳ CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART

Beadnet dress, Egyptian, Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4, reign of Khufu, 2551–2528 B.C. When the female rowers of the king's boat tossed away their regular clothing and slipped on bead-net dresses instead, "the heart of His Majesty was happy at the sight of their rowing," according to an ancient author. The tale is about magic performed by one of the priests of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid and the king under whom the owner of this dress probably lived. The woman's occupation is not known because she was found in an uninscribed coffin. Nothing remained inside except bones, a few scraps of linen, a headrest, and approximately seven thousand beads. This beadnet dress is the earliest surviving example of such a garment. It has been painstakingly reassembled from approximately seven thousand beads found in an undisturbed burial of a female contemporary of King Khufu. Although their string had disintegrated, a few beads still lay in their original pattern on and around the mummy, permitting an accurate reconstruction. The color of the beads has faded, but the beadnet was originally blue and blue green in imitation of lapis lazuli and turquoise. | ↳ MFA

Gold Collar with Medallion and Pendant, Egypt, Alexandria, Roman, 3rd century. | ↳ THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART

Gold & Agate Earring, 5th Century BC, Cyprus. | ↳ CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART

Pair of Earrings with a Disc and a Pyramid, from the Bosporan Kingdom. 330-300s BC. | ↳ THE STATE HERMITAGE MUSEUM

The Blessington lunula, 2400BC-2000BC (circa), Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age. Found in Ireland, Blessington. | ↳ THE BRITISH MUSEUM

Byzantine, gold, pearls, and semiprecious stones Earrings, Ca. 600 AD. These dramatic, colorful earrings were most likely made in Constantinople, perhaps as an imperial gift to a Visigothic ruler of medieval Spain, where the earrings were found. The Visigoths, a migratory group that ultimately settled in Spain, had by the 6th century established trade and diplomatic contacts with the Byzantine court, whose jewelry they much admired. | ↳ The Walters Art Museum

Saxon gold ring. Circa 9th Century AD. Found in Northumbria, England. Extremely rare gold saxon ring with a flat circular bezel engraved with a champlevé zoomorphic pattern inlaid with black niello, displaying a fantastic beast, the sinuous body shown in profile with only two legs visible, Y-shaped paws, turned-back head, biting it's own tail. The hoop is formed by a single wire twisted like a torque, a typical early saxon design, the shoulders terminating in foliate motifs. | ↳ ART FINDING