Enamelled Objects from Roman Britain

This morning it was my turn to lead a short gallery tour for the VSAs or Visitor Services Assistants. A curator leads a tour looking at a particular aspect of the displays or the collections to help brief the Visitor Assistants every week. As quite a lot of work has already been done on this very Blog on the topic of enamelled objects from Roman Britain I decided to take some seldom-seen objects from the store out onto the gallery and talk to colleagues about this material which I think is particularly attractive even in the condition to which it has been reduced by the passing of time and Manchester’s notoriously acidic soils… It was great to see Anna Bunney, Curator of Public Programmes, who came along to support the tour and gather ideas for future events and activities.

Replica enamelled Roman trumpet brooch from the British Museum

We started off at the second table in the Ancient Worlds gallery where visitors can see a selection of some of the enamelled material in the collection. Some of the most beauriful objects are actually replicas made by Mr H.W.Axtell of the British Museum but I have not been able to find out anything about the gentleman and his work. Nevertheless, it is thanks to him that we have an idea of how visually striking the pieces were when they were complete, although he has shown them with their dark green patina rather than the brassy, golden yellow colour they would have had when new. I am very grateful to Justine Bayley for sending me a reconstruction drawing of an enamelled wheel brooch  as it would have looked in the Roman period. This is cheap, flashy dress jewellery or bling but none the less attractive on that account.

Reconstruction of wheel brooch courtesy of Justine Bayley

Justine’s detail of one of the compartments in the brooch above shows how delicate the work in millefiori could be.

Enamel decoration like a stick of rock. Image courtesy of Justine Bayley.

One of the most beautiful pieces in the Manchester collection is a small fragment of bronze inlaid with millefiori from the Roman Manchester excavations of Prof G.D.B.Jones (1978).

I toyed with the idea of putting it on display as part of the Ancient Worlds galleries but decided reluctantly it would have been too small for visitors to see and enjoy. The item is only 2 cm across and each of the millefiori squares with a dot in each corner is just 3mm wide. I suspected initially this might have been part of a seal-box used to protect a wax seal from damage whilst a document or a package was in transit but having looked at the Portable Antiquities Scheme database   I am now convinced that this was indeed a brooch (see Kent-980761 and IOW-F3E8F4). The Manchester example has a round countersunk area on its back which is very similar to the Isle of Wight example. Justine Bayley very kindly drew my attention to her book (with Sarnia Butcher) Roman Brooches in Britain: a Technological and Typological Study based on the Richborough Collection (Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London, no.68, 2004), which features a number of such brooches on p.127 (Nos 363, 364, 367) and more schematic
ones on p.177 (T227 and T240).

Justine commented: “These brooches are small and decorative rather than being used to hold your clothes together so you’d want to keep weight to a minimum. It’s possible that the enamel may bond better or more easily if the metal backing is not too thick which could be another reason for the design. I suspect the overall reason for the shape is practical/technical rather than economic, but there’s never any point in using more metal than you need to! In some cases you can see concentric marks in the hollow so either the pattern from which the mould was made or the finished object was ‘turned’, ground or polished with a rotating movement.”

Underneath of brooch

Thanks to Louise for photographing this morning’s session and to Justine Bayley for kindly providing photographs and sending comments.

Roman enamels workshop in Malton, North Yorkshire

About ten days ago I managed to escape the lead-up to the opening of Fragmentary Ancestors and quit the office in order to re-engage with beautiful and fascinating objects in someone else’s collection. In this case it was the Malton Museum collection which sadly lost its home in the centre of the town a few years ago. A number of dedicated volunteers have been keeping the idea of the Malton Museum and its brilliant collections alive in the popular imagination by organizing events featuring objects from the collections. I went to a seminar earlier in the year on Roman glass led by Prof Jenny Price, who is a specialist in this subject.

Today’s seminar was led by Justine Bayley who retired from English Heritage about three years ago. Justine talked to us through a number of fine enamelled pieces from the Roman Malton collection, and mould fragments from Castleford, courtesy of Wakefield Arts, Museums and Heritage.

Justine Bayley at the Malton enamels seminar

The Malton Museum seminars are a great way to get very close to fascinating objects the greater part of two thousand years old for a very modest fee and a great opportunity to learn about them from leading experts in the field. One of the wonderful things about today’s seminar was being able to look at the colourful objects under a binocular microscope, which  brought out the bright colours.

Studying Roman enamels under a binocular microscope

Enamelled Roman belt buckle from Barton Street, Manchester

We show a group of enamelled bronzes on the ‘How do we know?’ table in the Ancient Worlds archaeology displays at Manchester Museum. In order to understand fully how people in antiquity did things sometimes you have to try and repeat the process yourself. This can be very informative because you are learning by doing. Manchester Museum acquired some replica enamelled objects from the British Museum that came from this branch of experimental archaeology. Manchester Museum’s examples were made by H.W.Axtell of the British Museum.

Replica dragonesque brooch

Replica enamel-decorated Roman brooch in Ancient Worlds

Of course with the last two images, the replicas are shown as we might find them today with their patina. The actual appearance, as Justine showed us in one of her publications, would have been far more garish and, frankly, bling-ish! See Justine Bayley’s paper ‘Bling bling & Co: Tout ce qui brille a Morat et marsens n’est pas or’ in Archeoquiz Enquetes Archaeologiques Fibourgeoises (2012), pp 114-5.

Reconstruction of wheel brooch courtesy of Justine Bayley

Enamel was used to decorate a range of small decorative objects including brooches, seal-boxes, buckle plates, button-and-loop fasteners, studs, votive stands and a few larger objects such as vessels. Justine showed us an image of a beautiful inkwell decorated with panels of millefiori enamel.

Enamel decoration like a stick of rock. Image courtesy of Justine Bayley.

Enamel is essentially glass that is fused to the metal and is brightly coloured  and usually opaque. It dates from the 1st into the 2nd centuries AD, after which it ceased to be fashionable. The site of Nornour came up in conversation as a place where lots of enamelled Roman bronzes were found. It reminded me that Dan, one of the Visitor Services Assistants at Manchester Museum, shared some photos he’d taken of a visit to one of the museums in the Scilly Isles.