Desborough Mirror

The Desborough Mirror was discovered in the mid-1908 by workers excavating ironstone from a site at the east end of Desborough, Northamptonshire, England.Smith (1909), p. 229 It was found in the same field as a near contemporary {{cvt|2|in}} bronze brooch, although the artefacts may not be from the same deposit (burial).Smith (1909), p. 330

Decorated bronze mirrors of this type are specific to England; only a few continental examples are known. The majority have been found at graves dated to between 100 BC and 100 AD, indicating that in contrast to many other Iron Age artefact types, they were not hidden or just lost.Joy (2008) Archaeologists and art historians generally agree that the Desbouough Mirror dates from c. 50 BC–50 AD based on the assumption that its quality of design and execution indicates that it was created during the "peak" of Iron Age mirror design.Smith (1909), p. 338

The Desborough mirror, like that found at Bridlip, is in relatively good condition compared to other extant decorated examples, a number of which may be reproductions given the disparity between their high-quality design and relatively poor-quality execution. There is light corrosion on around a quarter of the plates' surface area and on portions of the tubular loop.Lowery et al (1972), p. 107

File:British Museum - Room 50 (20883653368) (cropped).jpg

The mirror's cast handle consists of a looped chain design, and is relatively simply designed compared to other extant comtemporary examples.Joy (2010), p. 153Joy (2010), p. 143

The mirror plate is roughly circular and lined with a continuous tubular binding strip. The front side and handle contain green patination, while the reflection on the front side was realised through extensive polishing of the bronze surface. Previous to this method, reflection was only experienced by looking into clear water. Thus historians assume the mirrors were commissioned for high-status women.Joy (2008), chapter 5

File:Romano-Celtic mirror (Desborough) (cropped).jpg

The reverse side is decorated with intricate curvilinear Celtic designs in the "Insular La Tène" style, including engraved spirals, crescent shapes and "trumpet" (three-sided) patterns.Lowery et al (1972), p. 108 In total, 224 individual patterns have been identified.Joy (2008), p. 87

According to the archaeologist P.R. Lowery, the decoration of Celtic mirrors was a "delicate, intricate [process] and demanded considerable precisely directed force".Lowery et al (1972), p. 100 Because designing such complex and minutely intricate patterns requires a different skill-set to engraving, the mirror's production was likely overseen by a master craftsman who oversaw the work of a series of workshop members; during the design phase, when the outlines were lightly inscribed onto the plate and during the final application. This application of very small patterns required significant technical precision, and thus the final hatchings were most likely applied before the handle and tubing were attached, while the plate was held in a type of grip or vice.

The plate's broad outline appears to be that of a lyre (a stringed musical instrument similar to a lute) with flanking coils and was probably initially laid out using a scriber and compasses. The designs are symmetrically positioned, with those on one half reflecting opposite patterns on the other, but with the opposite shapes either "filled in" with darker shades (negative space) or empty with white space (positive space). Modern art historians generally agree that this inversion of positive and negative space was intended to invoke the way mirrors reverse the direction of any image at equal and opposite angles.Joy (2008), chapter 5

A scriber and compasses would have been used to outline the 224 individual patternsJoy (2008), p. 87 before they were engraved by separate craftsmen.

{{Reflist}}

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• Collingwood, Robin George; Myres, John Nowell. Roman Britain and English Settlements. NY: Biblo & Tannen, 1936. {{isbn|978-0-8196-1160-4}}
• Joy, Jody. Reflections on Celtic Art: a re-examination of mirror decoration". In: Garrow, Duncan (ed). Rethinking Celtic Art''. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2008. {{isbn|978-1-8421-7318-3}}
• Joy, Jody. Iron Age Mirrors: A Biographical Approach. Oxford: British Archeological Reports, 2000. {{isbn|978-1-4073-0703-9}}
• Lowery, P.R.; Savage, R.D.A.; Wilkins, R.L. "A Technical Study of the Designs on the British Mirror Series". Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 1972. doi: {{doi|10.1017/S0079497X00007003}}
• Russell, Miles. "The girl with the chariot medallion: a well-furnished, Late Iron Age Durotrigian burial from Langton Herring, Dorset". Archaeological Journal, volume 176, issue 2, 2019. {{doi|10.1080/00665983.2019.1573551}}
• Smith, Reginald. "[https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/archaeologia/article/abs/ixon-a-lateceltic-mirror-found-at-desborough-northants-and-other-mirrors-of-the-period/1E6BFB6B7630AB22449C3F3416EF82EC On a Late-Celtic Mirror found at Desborough, Northants, and other Mirrors of the Period]". Archaeologia, volume 61, issue 2, 1909. {{doi|10.1017/S0261340900010109}}

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• [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1924-0109-1 Catalogue entry at the British Museum]

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Category:Ancient Celtic metalwork

Category:Desborough

Category:History of Northamptonshire

Category:Prehistoric objects in the British Museum

Category:Bronze mirrors