British costume : a complete history of the dress of the inhabitants of the British Islands / by J.R. Planché.

  • Planché, J. R. (James Robinson), 1796-1880.
Date:
[1855?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: British costume : a complete history of the dress of the inhabitants of the British Islands / by J.R. Planché. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    37/404 (page 13)
    garland, and bearing a sceptre; the other with a crescent in his hand, one of the sacred symbols. They are both engraved below, with a crescent of gold, a druidical hook for tearing down the mistletoe, and three other articles, supposed druidical, all of gold, and found in various parts of Ireland S8. The mantle of one of the Druids, it will be observed, is fastened on the shoulders by a portion of it being drawn through a ring, and instances of this fashion are met with frequently in Anglo-Saxon illuminations. We believe it has never occurred to any previous writer on this subject, that the annular ornaments resembling bracelets (vide fig. d), so constantly dis- covered both here and on the Continent, and pre- sumed to be merely votive, from the circumstance of their being too small to wear on the arm or the wrist, may have been used in this manner as a sort of brooch by the Gaulish and Teutonic tribes. 88 Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, vol. iv.; Archaeologia, vol. it.; Meyrick’s Orig. Inliab. passim ; King’s Munimenta Antiqua, &c. The centre ornament is supposed to be a tiara for the arch-druid, and that to the right a golden collar or breast-plate. The wreathed rod of gold, with a hook at each end, is probably a small torque flattened out. Druidical ornaments, vide note. C