54 Haakon Schetelig. [No. 8 



known neither of gold nor of iron - - they are east as perfect as 

 possible in the form intended, only corrected aftenvards with a 

 file and provided with the ornaments executed with punch or drill. 

 As no unfinished specimen has been found we do not know in what 

 degree the filing was required; but that this part of the work was 

 not at all insignificant is seen by comparing specimens which have 

 come from the same mould. as in such cases the finished brooches 

 are diverging not a little form each other respecting the details of 

 the form. In all cases the exactness of the workmanship is well 

 worth our admiration respecting the fine brooches really destined 

 to be ornaments of the dress. 



As mentioned above the brooches are originally east in the 

 full thickness indicated by the facets of the surface, a circumstance 

 especially characteristic of the early stages of development. Later 

 on, when the brooches often became larger. of broacler forms, and 

 of a more marked moulding than before, they are generally made 

 concave from the underside, the bronze being east relatively thin 

 in all parts of the brooches. This proceeding, which no doubt 

 signifies a progress in the workmanship of casting, of course did 

 not diminish the ornamental effect of the form when the brooch 

 was used, and it also afforded a practical improvement by diminish- 

 ing the weight of the piece, a circumstance not unimportant in the 

 case of so large ornaments destined to be worn in the dress. 



The general transformation of the form, though in some degree 

 influenced by this change in the workmanship, is chiefly due to 

 the gradual forgetting of the original meaning of the different ele- 

 ments constituting the form. As we have seen were all the cha- 

 racteristic parts of the cruciform brooches producecl in connexion 

 with some practical purpose; the long and narrow shape of the 

 foot had been a necessary consequence of the returned foot which 

 was at its time a very useful invention in order to form the brooch 

 by bending a piece of string and not by casting; the three knobs 

 had got their natural place at the upper end of the brooch as the 

 completion of the arrangement of the spring-coil, and the square 

 plate had originally the destination to cover the spring-coil and to 

 connect the three knobs with each other. When all the elements 

 of the form were reduced to mere ornamental parts of the brooch 

 the transformation of them seems to have gone rather rapidly, but 

 it was just of this reason never consequentially and equally brought 

 about in all the brooches made at the same point of time. It is 



