File:A guide to the antiquities of the bronze age in the Department of British and mediæval antiquities (1904) (14780377041).jpg

Identifier: cu31924029929233 (find matches)
Title: A guide to the antiquities of the bronze age in the Department of British and mediæval antiquities
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: British Museum. Dept. of British and mediæval antiquities and ethnology Read, Charles Hercules, Sir, 1857-1929
Subjects: Bronze age
Publisher: (London) : Printed by order of the Trustees
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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de-signs on the two facesfrom Kingston (fig.511. Case B. It was formerly acommon impressionthat the bronze of pre-Koman times cameto this country fromabroad, as was vm-doubtedly the case inScandinavia ; but theexistence of moulds inthis country, togetherwith an ample supplyof the constituentmetals, shows thatbronze was from thefirst manufactured onthe spot. It is infact likely that foreigntraders in metal werefirst attracted to Corn-■i\-all and other partsby the knowledge thatIjionze was already inuse among the na-tives, who had dis-co\ered the ores andthe secret of smelting fm. 60.- and combining them.It was not only in the production of the best metal for their purposes (a mixtureof nine parts of copper to one of tin), that the British nativeshowed his skill, but also in the difficult task of hollow-castingby means of a core. The flat open moulds of stone (Dorsetand Northumberland, below Case D, and Spain, Case 89) wereimsuited for casting anything but unallojed copper, and it is
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-P;ilst;ive, Thames near mouth ofWandle. * 72 DESCRIPTION OF CASE B conceivable that these were resorted to during any temjioraryscarcity of tin ; but it is more probable that the open mouldsrepresent, in this country and abroad, the earliest attempts at cast-ing, which are far removed from the masterpieces produced ata later j^eriod. The existing moulds for swords, spear-heads,celts, &c., show that very little trimming was necessary after theoperation of casting; but it must be remembered that the majorityof moulds were no doubt of clay or compact sand, which haveperished or been overlooked in excavations. The use of clay iswell illustrated by a mould in this Case (fig. 52). It is of bronze,but was evidently itself cast in a mould of clay, which was formed round a model palstaveand bound to it by twinereproduced in the metal.On the left of theTFcs^side are moulds inbronze and stone, aswell as several casts oforiginals preserved inothercollections. Arect-angularblock, with half-mo

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