A Decorated Iron Age Bridle-bit in the London Museum: its place in Art and Archaeology

Abstract

That the London Museum possesses one fine Iron Age bridle-bit has been known since the publication in the 1939 Proceedings of that from Walthamstow, Essex. It is the purpose of this paper to draw attention to another in the same collection.The second bit was found in 1897 in the Thames at Old Windsor, Berkshire, and was acquired by Mr William H. Lloyd, Jnr., of St. Margaret's. In 1908, with the rest of his collection, it passed to Richmond Public Library, and in 1949 the Lloyd Collection was transferred by Richmond Borough Council on permanent loan to the London Museum.The bit (pl. XXIV, 1), cast in bronze throughout, consists of a central figure-of-eight link with a pronounced central moulding, flanked by two side-links and two side-rings. The side-rings are cast solid in one piece with the link-heads. Each side-ring has two emplacements for ornamental studs, now missing, one on either side of the link-head: each stud was originally secured by small bronze pins, one of which (pl. XXIV, 2) remains. The holes for the pins perforate the thickness of the left-hand ring (pl. XXV, 2): in the right-hand ring, however, the holes stop halfway through. Each link-head also has a stud-emplacement, now empty. On the right-hand link, the stud was fixed by a pin, now lost, similar to those used in the side-rings: the left-hand one was attached by a square-headed bronze pin, still present. The right-hand link-head is further enriched with a curvilinear motif executed partly in cast relief, partly incised, while the other has incised enrichment only.The bit is 10.6 inches (270 millimetres) long, the distance between the rings being 4.8 inches (122 millimetres). The side-links are 2.6 inches (68 millimetres) long, and 0.9 inch (24 millimetres) in greatest width. The centre-link is 2.4 inches (62 millimetres) long, the diameter of its central moulding 0.8 inch (21 millimetres). The side-rings are not true circles, their greatest and least diameters being 3.1 inches (80 millimetres) and 2.9 inches (73 millimetres) respectively: the rings measure 0.3 inch (8 millimetres) in section.