Celtic, 3rd - 2nd century B.C.

Bronze and enamel

L: 3 cm

Serial: 14691

PROVENANCE: Ex-Gawain McKinley collection, London, late 1980's.

This small appliqué, whole and in an excellent state of preservation, is highly elaborate in shape, resembling a flower with four pointed petals. The front is decorated with a very modern and pleasant pattern, composed of carved circles and half-circles that surround four abstract, bell-shaped elements. The two large central points are decorated with blue enamel, a detail that adds a beautiful touch of polychromy. The mechanism on the back used to fix the appliqué to its original support - a T-shaped hook and a rectangular fastener - is perfectly intact. This item, the purpose of which is unknown, might have been a little button or an ornament for armor, a belt or a horse's harness, etc. The Celts were a group of Indo-European peoples located almost everywhere in Europe: historically, their civilization belongs as much to protohistory as to ancient times. Their golden age was from the 8th to the 3rd century B.C., when they also established themselves in the north of the Italian peninsula; a succession of conquests and migrations carried them even further, up to Galatia (Asia Minor) and probably North Africa too. After the Romanization of Gaul and the area north of the Alps, Celtic civilization gradually gave way to the Latin lifestyle, but it partially survived in Britain where Celtic culture finally disappeared during the island's evangelization by Saint Patrick, in the 5th century B.C. Unaware of systems of political unity, the Celts formed tribes that were independent of one another. Nevertheless, their society had laws, customs, a religion (led by Druids) and rituals that brought them together. The Celts have left very few written records; thus their culture is best known through ancient Greek and Roman texts, in particular the comments of Herodotus and, later, of Julius Caesar, and through their artistic production, widely rediscovered during the second half of the 20th century thanks to numerous archaeological excavations. Major features are the dominance of anthropomorphic patterns or nature-derived motifs, such as entrelac, and a tendency towards abstraction, which is greatly appreciated today. Greek, Etruscan, Roman and, later, Christian influences also played a leading role in the development of Celtic art.