The industrial arts of the Anglo-Saxons / By the Baron J. de Baye. ; translated by T.B. Harbottle.

  • Joseph de Baye
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The industrial arts of the Anglo-Saxons / By the Baron J. de Baye. ; translated by T.B. Harbottle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    27/224 (page 11)
    THE ANGLO-SAXONS. with other peoples, and much has been borrowed to increase artistic resources/ To give one example only, it is certain that Saxon art has been strengthened by purely internal and national development. In the face of powerful traditional influence,, the goldsmith's work of the Anglo-Saxons has assumed forms entirely unknown in other regions occupied by the Barbarian nations. It is deeply penetrated by the influence of Scandinavia, and thus a new art has been developed which has necessarily been of a permanent character, artistic contact being aided by the constant flow of fresh immigrants, and by new maritime expeditions. Cremation long remained a funeral rite among the Anglo-Saxons. It continued to be practised in Kent for a considerable period after it had fallen into disuse in other countries. It is precisely in cases of urn burial that objects betraying Scandinavian influence are most commonly found,—a fact the truth of which is fully admitted by the authors of Crania Britannica. The perseverance of English archaeologists has enabled them to distinguish the productions of the various tribal industries, and to assign them to their true sources. In this they have been greatly aided by historical documents and geographical data. Yet, without disparaging the all-important geographical investi- gations of d'Anville, it is to archaeology that their success is chiefly due. It is by comparing the results of their researches that we have learnt the develop- ments of Anglo-Saxon industrial art, and are enabled to recognise its productions with absolute certainty.^ It has long been studied by English savants,^ and has certainly not escaped the attention of the learned authors of the Crania Britannica. Some controversy also has arisen between the savants of England and the North as to the origin of this art, owing to the difficulty of attributing to British inspiration workmanship which recalls the typical forms of the Cimbric Chersonese. However, be its origin what it may, it cannot be doubted that certain orna- ments are of native manufacture. These objects show us to what perfection the goldsmith's art had been brought, even at this distant period, while later the Anglo- Saxons became celebrated throughout Europe for the beauty of their jewellery.* ^ Wylie, Fairford Graves, p. 30 : The tribes, however, who came to our shores fresh from the sands of the Baltic and the wilds of Scandinavia, must have gazed with intense amazement on the first relics of Roman art and luxury, as on treasures now first presented to their gaze, creative of new images in minds not, even in barbarism, altogether insensible to poetry, or devoid of finer aspirations- That they would at once appreciate and preserve what they could not understand, is not to be supposed, . . . yet, doubtless, Roman elegance, manifested in the works of art, was not without its beneficial influence on the minds even of these barbarous Teutons. ^ A. GefFroy, Rome et les Barbares : Etude sur la Germanie de Tacife, p. 2. Paris, 1874. ^ Miintz, Aiudes Iconographiques et Archcologiques, p. 135 et seq. Paris, 1887. ^ Wright, The Celt, the Roman and the Saxon, p. 486.