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Desborough Mirror
| The Desborough Mirror | |
|---|---|
.jpg) The mirror's decorated reverse side | |
| Material | Bronze |
| Size |
|
| Created | c. 50 BC–AD 50 |
| Discovered | 1908 Desborough, Northamptonshire, England 52°26′23″N 0°49′02″W / 52.4398°N 0.8172°W |
| Discovered by | Workmen while excavating for ironstone |
| Present location | British Museum, London |
| Identification | 1924,0109 |
The Desborough Mirror is an intricately decorated English bronze mirror dated to c. 50 BC – 50 AD. It consists of a cast handle and a circular mirror plate which is highly polished on its front side to achieve reflectivity. The plate's reverse is decorated with intricate engraved and chased curvilinear patterns in the La Tène style, and filled in with basket hatching.
The mirror was discovered in mid-1908 by workmen outside Desborough, Northamptonshire, alongside a small and near contemporary brooch (also in bronze). Along with the mirror found in Birdlip, Gloucester, the Desborough Mirror is widely considered to be the finest of the roughly 26 surviving, fully intact and decorated Iron Age bronze mirrors, the large majority of which are English.[1] It was acquired by the British Museum in 1924, where it is displayed in room 50 (Britain and Europe 800 BC–AD 43).[2]
- ^ A further 33 undecorated English Celtic bronze mirrors survive. See Jody (2008), ch. 5
- ^ "The Desborough Mirror". British Museum. Retrieved 20 December 2024
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